Alpha and Omega: (Un)Dead Park
by Lilly Omega
Summary: When wolves begin dying in Jasper, the pack suspects a pack of rogue from Banff. Until a scout, sent to rescue a missing wolf, returns covered in bites. He tells a tale of undead wolves before his death. When a horde of undead wolves invade Jasper, very few survive the attack. Will those who are left survive, or will they join the ranks of the undead horde?
1. The Moonlight Howl

**Prologue**

**The Moonlight Howl**

It was a full moon on this night, the only time of the month that the wolves of Jasper National Park, Canada held their Moonlight Howl. The Moonlight Howl is an event, a tradition, among the older wolves, used to find a mate. Among the younger generations of wolves, on the other hand, The Moonlight Howl is a wolf-type of prom, rave or party; couples come to The Howling Rock to sing, to dance, to howl at the full moon, and to mate. The elevation on the mountain where the wolves could howl had once been determined by the social ranking of those wolves. The highest ranking wolves, the Alphas, were supposed to howl at the top third elevation; the middle ranking wolves, the Betas, were to howl at the middle third elevation. And then there were the Omega wolves, the lowest ranking wolves in a pack, forced to howl at the bottom third of the mountain. It had once been forbidden for wolves to howl with wolves above or below his or her social ranking. This law had been part of the former Eastern and Western packs, once fighting over territory for food, for as long as there had been an Eastern Pack and a Western Pack.

The former Alpha male of the Eastern Pack, Tony, had offered the former Western Pack Alpha male, Winston, only one solution to the violence between the two packs. Violence that included the wolves ruining each others' hunt and killing each other. Tony's idea of a perfect solution had been that his oldest son, Garth, marry Winston's oldest daughter, Kate. The problems with Tony's potential solution was, first, that Garth was a terrible howler. Second, an Omega wolf of the Western Pack called Humphrey was in love with Kate, but couldn't marry Kate because of pack law at the time. Third, Kate's little Omega sister Lilly eventually ended up falling in love with Garth and the feeling ended up being mutual. It was he love of Lilly and Garth, plus the sudden disappearance of Kate and Humphrey, who had been taken to Sawtooth Park, Idaho, to reproduce there, that almost caused the two packs to fight for the valley.

The untimely return of Kate and Humphrey to Jasper, with Kate agreeing to unite the packs by marrying Garth, temporarily put an end to the war. At the wedding, Kate and Garth couldn't bring themselves to marry each other because their true loves, Humphrey and Lilly, had been left heartbroken by their decision. They had revealed to all of both the packs that they were in love with Omegas, an act that led to a brutal fight between the packs, and then a stampede of caribou that almost cost Kate her life in the end. It was not the marriage of Kate and Garth that united the packs but this near death experience and the marriage of Lilly and Garth that united the packs. The pack law that stated wolves couldn't marry outside their social ranking was done away with because of all the grief it had caused the packs. A Central Pack was formed by the unity of the Eastern and Western Packs.

By the next winter, Kate and Humphrey had three pups - Claudette, a girl, and two sons, Stinky and Runt. However, the unity of the two packs was not the end of trouble for them all. A rogue pack of former Eastern Alpha Wolves, from Banff National Park, that had not agreed with the marriage of Alphas, Betas and Omegas, took Runt, an Omega, from Jasper to use him as bait to take over Jasper. If it had not been for a suddenly attack by a grizzly bear, the three rogue scouts would have captured Claudette and Stinky as well. In Banff, the daughter of the Alpha male King, formerly known as Slash, whose name was Princess, formerly Terra, had taken a motherly liking to Runt, refusing to let the other wolves of her pack harm Runt. But King had ordered her to execute Runt if wolves from Jasper did not come to rescue Runt by sunrise. They did, and when they made a plan to rescue Runt, things got bloody. Several wolves from the Banff pack were killed by the Jasper wolves and a family of grizzly bears whose cub had been rescued by Kate, Humphrey, Claudette and Stinky.

The battle that ensued had caused the rescue plan to go wrong after Princess refused to fight for her father and refused to lead half of her pack to Jasper. Kate had managed to find Runt while Humphrey was distracting King, but this plan also backfired because of the guards stationed in the area. Kate had been spotted by those guards and separated by Runt. Thankfully, Princess had been watching the whole battle, silently supporting the Jasper wolves until Runt had been left alone because of all the chaos. Princess saved Runt from being found by the guards, but they had been confronted by King, and him alone. If it had not been for the intervention of Hutch, a Beta wolf loyal to the Alpha family, King would have killed both her and Runt. Hutch and Princess left King with a gas in his throat, but Princess had also been similarly wounded by her father. While King escaped the area alive, but bleeding out, the female Omega wolves Candy and Sweets, best friends, were the only reason Princess survived having her throat torn open.

Although Kate had offered the brave she-wolf a place in Jasper, Princess reluctantly refused, and returned to Banff, intending only to learn what had happened to her father. Only Princess ended up being enslaved for the next two years, charges against her being treason for not following orders and almost killing her own father. King, like Princess, had survived his injury. Princess became an Omega and a target for brutal beatings until she managed to flee to Jasper Park. Before her escape, a male wolf had come to mate with her, but she took his life, an act which King and her mother, Queen, called murder. On her journey, Princess had renounced her loyalty to her father and her pack, announcing that she would not call King and Queen "father" or "mother" again. Once arriving in Jasper, Princess warned the wolves there about how King had survived, and that he was still planning to come to Jasper, to take it over. It was during the time of a competition between adolescent wolves called The Great Wolf Games. Although not many wolves trusted her, because of how she had returned to her father's pack, despite her disturbing story about Banff, and her actions two years earlier, it was her warning that made her seen suspicious. But Runt, the youngest pup of Kate and Humphrey whom Princess had saved the life of, whom was falling in love with Princess, was the only wolf of his generation who trusted Princess.

So when both Princess and Runt vanished without a trace, the majority of the Central Pack had believed that Princess was responsible, pointing out, again, how she had gone back to Banff, rather than joining their pack. The truth was that wolves from Banff had taken them both back to Banff, where Princess and Runt were put through hell, including blood sports, until they planned to escape. Things went horribly wrong when they had tried to tunnel into a cavern system underneath the cave they were held in. Only Princess, pregnant with the pups of Runt because of their encounter under the light of the full moon, barely escaped, lightly injured. Princess had been left thinking that Runt had been killed, because she had heard his screams and coated in blood that had dripped done into the cavern through the whole they had dug through the floor of the cave. When Princess finally returned to Jasper alone, coated in dried blood, her story provoked a battle between the wolves of Jasper and Banff when Jasper was invaded by the rogues. Kate was badly wounded, but in the end both King and Queen were killed by Princess and Runt, who was in reality still alive. He had actually killed the wolves sent to execute him. Kate recovered in time to watch Claudette defeat a Northern Alpha called Nars, who had been in love with Kate when they were puppies, in all the rounds of the Great Wolf Games. Princess and Claudette would go on to give birth to the healthy pups of their mates Runt and Fleet, the son of Nars.

Now, the wolves of Jasper were experiencing the longest period of peace they had never known. The couples, new and old, were howling with each other at the highest peaks of The Howling Rock. Among the couples were Kate and Humphrey, Lilly and Garth, Claudette and Fleet, Princess and Runt, Claws and Scar, Sweets and Salty, and Candy and Mooch. In addition to howling with their mates, some of them were on their hind legs, doing a dance of sorts with their mates. The males were behind the females. The only couples that were "dancing" were Lilly and Garth and Claws and Scar. Scar had his paws around the attractive curves of his mate, but Garth had his paws on Lilly's rear. Garth did not do it for long, but he had, unnoticed to the others, mounted Lilly and appeared to be dancing while they mated between their friends. They stopped only because Lilly's howling had been on the verge of being pleasured moans, to avoid suspicion. Thankfully, it seemed, no one had noticed or suspected Lilly and Garth of mating. There would be time for that later. Mating season wouldn't be over until winter started. It was only late October, so there was still two months. Lilly hoped that it would be soon when they finally did it, because she was tired of doing it herself in bushes whenever male wolves were around, or at night when she was sleeping in the tall grassy field with Garth.

Candy and Sweets were not being as physical as the others, or daring to dancing because they were heavily pregnant with the pups of their mates Salty and Mooch. Their cream-colored bellies were showing this. Candy and Sweets did not want to hurt themselves, more importantly their pups, nor did their Omega mates. So the four were only howling and they wouldn't do any dancing until after they had their pups.

Of all the wolves here who were friends of Humphrey since his puppyhood, only one of them was absent. That was Shakey, his mate Janice and her best friend Reba. They were all vegetarians and liked to howl away from their carnivorous friends to avoid being taunted for their extreme dislike of meat. Reba and Janice had not willingly eaten meat in their lives, because their parents had died when Reba and Janice were unable to fend for themselves. The best friends found each other and had survived on berries and roots until they were rescued by a hunting party of wolves, from Jasper, who had lost a caribou's trail during that harsh winter. They were never adopted into families because of their diet, but they managed to survive as vegetarians for years, despite their abuse as a result, including being deemed Omegas by Winston and Eve, parents of Kate and Lilly, the Alpha male and Alpha female at the time. Much of the Alpha family felt bad for Reba and Janice now, and made it known that this abuse would not be tolerated anymore.

Regardless of this decree of Kate and Humphrey working out like they had hoped it would, and more, Reba, Janice and Shakey still refused to howl at the peak of The Howling Rock. It got lonesome, yes, but they had each other to keep themselves occupied, just howling and eating berries, with their two squirrels friends. Three wolves was enough wolves for howling and having fun with it. Janice had just said something to her mate and her best friend about how she wished all their friends would go vegetarian like Shakey had.

"Yes," said Reba. "It was kind of Kate to make a decree just for the three of us, but if only she had made a decree about wolves having to eat our diet..."

There had been the moaning of a male and female wolf coming from around the bend of this box canyon, for the purpose of this elevation was not howling, but a private place for wolves to mate at this time of year. But the moaning stopped for a split second. It was replaced by an angry snarl from the male, who was yelling for Reba and Janice to "stop with all the vegetarian talk", in a rather rude way that made the she-wolves cry.

Reba and Janice howled mournfully now, not even hearing the screams of the two wolves around the bend, they had been so offended by the male's comments.


	2. Stop the insanity! Go organic!

**Chapter One**

**"Stop the insanity! Go organic!"**

"Stop the insanity! Go organic!" the two she-wolves shouted, running all about the meeting ground of the territory of the central wolf pack of Jasper Park. It was the vegetarian wolves, and best friends, Reba and Janice, two of the only three vegetarian wolves in all of the park, maybe all of Canada. They were both wearing multiple flower necklaces, which they were throwing at certain wolves who were most vocal in being against their vegetarian beliefs. The first two to receive these flower necklaces were Claws and Scar, whom were not at all accepting of this stinkin' flowers. Scar ripped them off his neck and threw them into a nearby fire, encircled by stones. Claws did the same, only to go into a profane rant that made the vegetarians freeze in their tracks. Her hacks couldn't be sticking up ay straighter than they were in this moment.

"Damn fools!" roared Claws. "Get away, you bitches, and take your flowers too, or I'll burn you both WITH THEM!" To be female wolves and called "bitches" was the worst possible insult to be directed toward them. Yes, it was another name for female dogs, which Reba and Janice were, but Claws meant it in the most insulting way. Reba and Janice were highly offended by the phrase and they slinked away, crying, with their heads low to the ground. "I WANT TO SEE YOU DAMNED VEGGIE LOVERS RUN LIKE YOUR LIVES DEPEND ON IT!" Claws roared again, feeling that Reba and Janice weren't moving away from her and Scar fast enough. "Because it just might!" And then the vegetarians ran for their lives until they were stopped by Kate, the Alpha female of the united packs, and Fleet, the mate of Kate's oldest pup, formerly of the Northern Pack.

Reba and Janice were breathing heavily, and sweating equally as heavy, looking around, almost expecting Claws to come up behind them, and tear them both to shreds. When they were sure Claws wouldn't, the vegetarians collapsed to the ground on their bellies. They looked up at Kate and Fleet.

"What happened to you two?" asked Fleet. "You both look like you might have just seen a mother..."

"We did..." cried Janice, cutting Fleet off. "...that monster is Claws!"

"What happened?" asked Kate.

"We had just arrived here to...to give our flower necklaces to the wolves here," Reba began, but fell into a weeping fit just trying to them what had happened.

Janice took over. "The first wolves we saw were Claws and Scar, and they lost it when we threw the flowers over their necks. They burned them, and Claws went into a profane rant, and...and...she threatened to burn us with our flowers if we didn't get away from them. She screamed it at us..."

"That must have been who we heard screaming," said Fleet. "Are you going to do anything about Claws, Kate? Claws can't be going around threatening to burn Reba and Janice alive."

Kate turned back to the vegetarians. "I'll talk to Claws about her behavior later, but you two need to promise me something now."

"Yes, Kate?" asked Janice. She was fanning Reba with her bushy tail.

"No more of you two throwing your flowers around," Kate said, "as long as Claws and Scar are here. I mean, who knows what they - specifically Claws - will do to you if they see you doing that again."

"So much violence in such a beautiful wolf," whispered Fleet. And he wasn't just saying that. Claws always looked extremely beautiful after The Moonlight Howl, because that was the only time she tried to be beautiful. She had her mate well groomed and cut to a length that showed her cheeks. (Claws' mane was normally down to her neck.) Any other time of the month other than full moons, when the howls took place, Claws let herself go and her mane had once grown down to her shoulders in the time between howls. But Claws' thoughts about beauty had changed recently. She was actually willing to keep this well groomed look year round. It was how Claws had been successful in almost seducing Scar into being her mate. Claws almost had as many males after her before marrying Scar as Kate had before marrying Humphrey. Unfortunately, Claws' new groomed, what other wolves called "sexy", look did nothing, nothing at all, to fix her attitude, as Reba and Janice had just been unfortunate enough to figure out the hard way. Reba was the calmer of the two vegetarians, but still, Claws' response was enough to make her question all she believed. It seemed that Janice had lost it. Janice took all of her flowers, and those around Reba's neck, too, screamed at the top of her lungs, and threw them in every direction.

Some of the flowers landed on the ground and in the mud. The rest had landed on some of the wolves nearby, even around their necks. Others landed on their backs or heads. Among these wolves were Kate, Lilly, Garth, Claudette and Fleet. Lilly had been rubbing her nose with Garth's nose when this happened. They had been so caught up in rubbing noses that they had not noticed any of what happened involving Reba and Janice. Therefore, when two of the flower necklaces landed on her and Garth, they were not sure about how to react. Lilly got off of Garth, who had been laying on his back with Lilly on top of him, until now, allowing her mate to get up.

Lilly blinked. "Come, Garth. Let's find somewhere that may be more private than this spot, like the tall grass we live in. I will admit that I do not mind Reba's and Janice's vegetarian habits until they throw their foods and flowers on us." This tone of voice, low and angry, was very unusual for Lilly, who was normally a soft-spoken wolf, almost impossible to anger to the point of showing it. Garth agreed with his beautiful mate and the couple took off before anyone had a chance to explain why Janice had thrown all the flowers. The vegetarians' ears and tails drooped.

Janice spoke in a low voice. "If any of you happen to see Lilly and Garth again, please tell them that we deeply regret what happened. We'll be at The Howling Rock, without Shakey, if they want to find us. Or if you want to find us. There's a good berry patch there," Janice added before they took off.

"Hutch," said Kate. "I need you to do something for me."

"Yes, ma'am?" Hutch was an extremely loyal Beta wolf who had once reported urgent news to Winston, when he had been the leader of the pack. Now, Hutch reported urgent news to Kate, daughter of Winston, who was the new leader of the pack.

"I want you to follow Reba and Janice. Make sure they don't get into any more trouble on their way to The Howling Rock. And, tell them that Humphrey and I wish to speak with them as soon as possible, when they calm down some, though."

Hutch bowed his head, said "Yes, ma'am" again before running in the direction Reba and Janice had gone, to The Howling Rock.


	3. The Massacre at The Howling Rock

**Chapter Two**

**The Massacre at The Howling Rock**

The two best friend vegetarian wolves, Reba and Janice, on their way to The Howling Rock, were only a few meters from the special mountain. The Howling Rock was the special place, to the north of the valley, where all the wolves in Jasper lived, where all the younger wolves went to howl with their mates, or to find a mate.

Although Reba and Janice deeply regretted that they had angered Lilly - a task that is next to impossible to accomplish, but they had done it- and Garth, they had lied to Kate about coming here just to eat the best berries in the valley. That would be the first of two things the vegetarians did. After they both had eaten their fill of blue berries, Reba and Janice would try to find wolves here and try to get them to eat like vegetarians. (They knew that Lilly had dragged Garth away from the meeting grounds to mate with him, being that time of year, so they were hoping that Lilly hadn't decided to come here instead, after what had happened. They could say the same about Claws and Scar, especially Claws.) Reba and Janice had nothing against their carnivorous friends, like Kate and Claudette, but rather they were against the idea of eating meat because of what had happened during their puppyhood.

Reba and Janice had been born not in Jasper but Banff, before King had left Jasper, when he was still known as Slash, with part of Tony's pack, during a time of stormy weather. Stormy weather that took the lives of their parents. Reba and Janice met each other a week later, after the storms had finally come to an end, just outside the border of Banff. Wandering to the west, close to Jasper, they had survived eating plant roots, berries, grass and so on. They were found by a hunting pack from Jasper that had lost track of a caribou that they had been lucky to find, having been winter then.

Being found by that hunting pack from the then Western Pack did not bring an end to Reba's and Janice's hardships. It was only the beginning of what some wolves could call a hellish life. And it was true. The lives of Reba and Janice always have been hell, and they still were. Although now was about as good as their lives had been, as good as they would get, it was mostly the members of the Alpha family - Humphrey, Lilly, Garth, Claudette, Eve, Stinky, Runt, Winston, Tony and Fleet - and most of the Omega wolves whom respected the vegetarians who cared about Reba and Janice. Princess, Hutch and Candu were the only Beta wolves in the entirely valley known to respect them. Not very many Alphas, outside of Kate's family, had any respect for them. By wolves like Claws and Scar, Reba and Janice were considered the lowest ranking wolves in the Central Pack. The friends of Reba and Janice truly felt sorry for them for all the abuse they took. Not many wolves knew about Reba's and Janice's early lives.

Princess, the former Alpha daughter of King's Pack, now a Beta wolf in the Central Pack of Jasper, had once intervened in a conflict between the vegetarians and some Alphas from the former Eastern Pack of Jasper. Those wolves had tied the front and hind legs of Reba and Janice together with vines, and were forcing caribou meat into the mouths of the vegetarians, at which they had succeeded at which the help of Claws, an Eastern Beta Wolf. They had been forcing the vegetarians to swallow the caribou meat by the time Princess had reached them. She did not kill any of the Eastern wolves, but when Princess had intervened, her actions were bloody. Bloody but Princess's reasoning was that she had witnessed those Eastern wolves doing "reminded her of things those brutal wolves from Banff did to me". The Eastern wolves responsible were punished and not Princess. Reba and Janice have been in debt, in their minds, of Princess ever since this incident, but Princess did not want anything in return. She had just been doing what was right.

"I hear moaning, but I don't see any wolves," said Reba. "There must be a couple here, mating. Oh, how I hope it is not Lilly and Garth or Claws and Scar." The vegetarians shuttered at the thought of not them mating but just being here! Claws would, literally, murder them if she saw them.

"I'll just die if it is Claws, the female we hear," said Janice. "Claws scares me, more so after what she did sand said to us..." Reba and Janice were goofy wolves, yes, but even they were not foolish enough to barge in on mating wolves. They knew that without ever having known their parents long enough to be taught proper behavior. However, when the moaning of an unknown source, which they had assumed was just a mating couple, had not ceased over twenty minutes later (why they had stuck around twenty-plus minutes, they did not know), Reba and Janice began to worry. Worry about how that moaning could possibly be injured wolves. The vegetarians listened more attentively and realized how much more painful than pleasured it sounded. They sensed that there was no enjoyment from whatever was going on, based on the tone. Reba and Janice briefly debated what should be done about it.

Reba and Janice came to an agreement about a minute later. It would be risking their lives for them to do what they were about to do. They didn't know what they were getting themselves into. The two she-wolves darted, together, around the bend, into the box canyon. The box canyon was where the moaning had been, and still was, coming from. They came around the bend to be greeted by the most unexpected sight. It was the most gruesome thing that Reba and Janice had ever seen in their lives. And it would be the most gruesome thing they would ever see, too. It was two wolves, a male and a female, just like they had expected. The thing about these wolves they had _not_ expected was the condition of their bodies. Both of these wolves, whom neither Reba nor Janice had seen before, were horribly mutilated. They were both covered in multiple bite marks and scratches, clearly inflicted by other wolves; nothing else could have done this kind of damage. The female was missing her right eyeball, and the male's throat was torn out.

None of this was the worst of it all. The worst was what Reba and Janice saw behind these mutilated wolves. That was all the body parts and guts of wolves all over this box canyon near the base of The Howling Rock. It happened to be the very box canyon in which Reba and Janice had howled with Janice's mate, Shakey, just the night before. The vegetarians were only realizing this now. Only now, there was all the blood, limbs and internal organs of at least three wolves scattered throughout the canyon, none of which had been there the night before, obviously, or Reba and Janice would have see all this gore to begin with. The vegetarians were puking their guts out, something they had not done since Eastern Wolves had forced them to eat caribou meat.

Now, Reba and Janice were screaming in unison, not only because of the gruesome appearance of these two wolves, and all the dead wolves who made up the gory mess. It was a third wolf, like these two, in one of the corners of the canyon. It was another she-wolf, who was eating the flesh of a dying wolf. His stomach was hanging out. Reba and Janice saw his exposed heart still beating in his broken ribcage. The she-wolf who was eating the dying wolf was ravenous. The vegetarians now knew who the dead wolves were. He was one of the Western Beta wolves who often went on hunts with Claws, Hutch, Candu and Scar, sometimes Princess, too; he was also one of the guards of The Howling Rock at The Moonlight Howl the previous night. The mutilated wolves, including the female eating the now deceased guard, who appeared to still be alive despite their life threatening injuries, heard the screams of Reba and Janice.

The mutilated wolves did not run but shamble in the direction of Reba and Janice, who were too horrified by this scene, which they wish they had not stumbled upon, to move. The vegetarians did not even realize that the three wolves were coming toward them. Janice was still too stunned to be aware of surroundings. Reba had snapped out of this state, and started to run away, but she stopped only upon realizing that Janice was not running with her! Reba screamed for Janice to run, but she was too late. One of the wolves had already reached Janice and sank his teeth into her broad shoulder. Janice screamed and cried with hysteria and agony until she freed herself from his jaws. She continued screaming afterward, upon coming to the realization that a good-sized chunk of flesh had been torn off her shoulder. Her bone, her shoulder, was clearly visible. Clearly visible, but bloody. Her wound was gushing out blood. Reba was still screaming for her friend to run, to run for her life. But Janice didn't run. She couldn't bring herself to run, she was so stunned. Janice was in complete shock as the three wolves surrounded her slowly. Reba was the only witness to her oldest and best friend scream as she, Janice, was torn to shreds. Reba collapsed to the ground in tears immediately, screaming with sadness.

There was one last thing, only one, that Reba saw when she looked up from her paws. It was the jaws of one of these mutilated wolves, wide open, coming directly toward her. Scream screamed as teeth tore into her breast...


	4. Hutch's Mission

**Chapter Three**

**Hutch's mission**

"Before you leave, Hutch, to find Reba and Janice," said Kate, who was talking in private in her cave, once belonging to Winston and Eve, with Hutch, the highest-ranking Beta wolf in the Central territory, next to Princess.

"Yes, ma'am?" asked Hutch

"You will not have as difficult search as I had first expected." Kate sat down on her haunches; this was the first time Kate had sat down since this morning. And that was when she first woke up!

"Why is that, ma'am?" Hutch asked in confusion.

"I just spoke with Claws and Scar," Kate explained. "They had been at The Howling Rock...well, you can figure out what they were doing there...when they saw Reba and Janice do into a box canyon. Scar said that they had seemed like they were in a hurry. They watched the spot for half an hour, but Reba and Janice never came out of the box canyon. Thing about box canyons, you know, I'm sure, is that box canyons have only one way in and one way out. My point is that if they went into a box canyon and didn't come out after a few minutes, let alone half an hour, then something bad must have happened to Reba and Janice."

Hutch sat down. "Claws and Scar didn't see anything after Reba and Janice went into the cave? Nothing at all?"

"No," said Kate. "If only they had. Maybe we would know what to expect."

"So you are sending me to the box canyon, at The Howling Rock...alone?" Hutch gulped, thinking about going there alone when two wolves were missing. "What if there are, say, rogues there? Rogues from Banff? What can I do to a group of rogues if I am there alone?"

"I am only sending you there to find out why Reba and Janice never came out of that box canyon." Kate paused for a minute. She closed her eyes, then opened them again. "Also, keep an eye out for the wolves who had been on guard at The Howling Rock at least night's Moonlight Howl. They vanished last night, near the close of the howl, and no one has seen them since. I am worried about them as much as Reba and Janice. They, too, were, supposedly, last seen in the same box canyon..."


	5. An Unexpected Surprise

**Chapter Four**

**An Unexpected Encounter**

Hutch had just left Kate's cave. He was on his way to The Howling Rock to find Reba and Janice, and now last night's guards of The Moonlight Howl, all of whom were missing. They had all vanished in the same box canyon. To go search for the five missing wolves was per orders of his Alpha female Kate. Reba and Janice had gone into that box canyon and, according to the Eastern Beta wolves, Claws and Scar (who had happened to be on a cliff with a good view of the opening of the canyon, when they had been mating), the vegetarians never came out of the canyon after going in half an hour earlier. And then the three wolves who had been guarding The Howling Rock during last night's Moonlight Howl vanished the night before, unnoticed because all of the wolves they were guarding had been howling, with each other, to the full moon when their guards vanished without a trace. Kate had told Hutch that she only know about their disappearance because the families of those missing wolves had come to her themselves. The mothers of these wolves, through tears, had told Kate that their sons had not stopped by to check on them like they usually did on their way back to their own caves, after The Moonlight Howl. A massive questioning of every wolf who had been there turned up no answers. Just like a questioning of Claws and Scar had turned up no answers about Reba and Janice.

The experienced Beta wolf was as worried as he could be. First all of, three of his hunting partners, and some of the first wolves he met were missing, vanished without a trace. Just to vanish like that wasn't like those three. Not at all. And then he was worried about Reba and Janice. As a pup, he had lost his parents in the same stormy weather and flooding that had taken the lives of the parents of Reba and Janice. Also from Banff originally, Hutch had personal connection to both of them. And, secretly, Hutch was in love with Reba. He had been since they had first encountered each other as pups, but the old pack law had prevented Hutch from asking Reba to marry him. He was a Beta. Reba was an Omega. But now, Hutch didn't have the courage to court Reba. Not even Reba knew that he loved her because Hutch was afraid that Reba would reject him because he was not a vegetarian like her and Reba were. But if it was for Reba, then Hutch would give up eating meat all together, just for her alone. It would be worth it if it got his true love, his only love, to accept him.

Just then, a dark thought entered Hutch's mind: what if they were all dead, Reba too, because of, like he had suggested to Kate, rogue wolves from Banff? So what if King and Queen, the former dominant wolves of the rogue pack from Banff, were dead, killed by Princess and Runt? So what if Princess, the only pup of King and Queen who was still alive, had renounced her loyalty to her father and was now loyal to her former pack's rivals? None of that would stop a pack of bloodthirsty wolves from avenging their fallen leaders. Nothing would! The rogues of Banff would kill any wolf who got in their way just to kill the wolves whom King wanted dead before his own demise: Princess and all of Kate's family. Hutch didn't want to think about who would be next if Reba and Janice, and the three guards had been killed by them.

Hutch shook his head as if to clear these thoughts from his head. Hutch looked up to see where he was now. He recognized the cave that was nearby. It was the cave shared by the couples Candy and Mooch and Sweets and Salty, all four Omega wolves. Although Sweets had ignored Salty at The Moonlight Howl when he, Shakey and Mooch had flirted with her and Candy, Salty's one and only pick up line had been "Hey" in a tone of voice that Candy and Sweets had laughed at, thinking that Salty had only succeeded at embarrassing himself and his friends. Sweets had thought that Salty sounded like he had just climaxed; of course, then, she never would have looked to see! She hadn't liked him one bit then. But his voice and the look on his face had gave it away to Candy and Sweets. Maybe he had, Sweets had thought often now that they were mates. She had once thought about how that Salty, his friends and Candy all had been in heat during that Moonlight Howl. In the end, none of them had found mates to howl with and they all had to deal with being in heat by themselves. Except for Kate, Lilly, Humphrey and Garth, none of the Omegas had found dates that night. Although the relationship between Kate and Garth had not lasted long because Garth had been a terrible howler then. Humphrey had only been attracted to Lilly long enough to get tasted by Lilly under a fire tree. Humphrey had left Lilly, giving her an excuse that he had wanted to get a drink of water, when he had realized that the only wolf he wanted to howl with was Kate, not Lilly, as kind of a wolf she was, Lilly hadn't been the wolf for Humphrey. Lilly probably would have said the same about Humphrey because of her feelings for Garth that had started on the same night.

Suddenly, and unexpectedly, Hutch heard an earsplitting wail of agony come from inside the cave. It sounded like Sweets. Hutch screamed "NO!" at the top of his lunges, because he had also been thinking about the possibility of Banff rogues being in Jasper, and who their next victims could be. What if their next victims just happened to be the four wolves who lived in this cave - Sweets, Candy, Salty and Mooch?

Thankfully, though, when Hutch got into the cave, after sprinting up the hillside that was the only way to access it, he learned that he was wrong about the source of the wailing. Sweets was wailing in agony not because she was having her throat torn out, or witnessing it happening to the others, but because she was giving birth! Sweets was laying on a blanket of mosses which were stained red with her bodily fluids from already having gave birth to two pups. Candy told Hutch that Sweets should be only having one more pup before it was all over.

"Sweets should be alright when it's over," Candy added.

"I wish I was alright now!" screamed Sweets. "And that it was over now!" Sweets had not been expecting for the process of giving birth to hurt as bad as it did. The best way she could describe it was that she felt like she was being stabbed in the womb, not that she literally knew what being stabbed felt like. _It's a stabbing PAIN!_ she thought harshly. That was a better way of describing her pain. Sweets was thinking back to when she had mated with Salty. Like Candy did to Mooch, Sweets had been on top of Salty, forcibly riding her mate until she got just what she wanted from him. That had felt so good in comparison to giving birth, but thinking about it did _nothing_ to make her feel better now! It ironically made her regret getting pregnant to begin with! The feeling of mating and the feeling of giving birth were complete opposites. Candy was worried about how well she would take giving birth when her time came in about a week. Eve, Kate's mother and an expert in healing, had estimated that Candy would be due to give birth in about a week.

Hutch made sure that Sweets would be fine once the third, and yes, the last pup was born, then he left their cave as quickly as he had arrived once he was sure everything would be alright here.


	6. The Gruesome Discovery

**Chapter Five**

**The Gruesome Discovery**

After making sure that Sweets was fine since her third and last pup was born, and that everything had calmed down, as much as it would anyway, Hutch continued onward from the cave of Candy and Sweets and Salty and Mooch. It had relieved him to see that the cause for Sweets' wailing was her giving birth rather than someone in her cave being killed, but regardless of the worse possibility not happening, to walk by the cave when Sweets had been giving birth was the last thing any wolf could have expected to be in the area for. It was the first time in Hutch's life that he had been witness to a female wolf, a female _anything_, giving birth. Hutch could still feel Sweets' pain, as he had witnessing her have that last pup. It had made him feel sorry for Sweets, and made him glad that he was born a male. Hutch doubted that he would be able to handle the pain of giving birth, and he's had his shoulder torn down to the bone by a grizzly bear. Twice.

Hutch's mind did not relax once Sweets and those other three Omega wolves were off his mind. The missing wolves were still on his mind. They all had been on his mind when he was watching Sweets give birth, as painful as it had been for him to watch. (It hurt so much that he tried not to think about it.) Hutch was nearing The Howling Rock. He was praying, in his mind, that the five missing wolves would be alright when, or if, he found them, as Sweets and her cave mates had been. He knew, unfortunately, that missing wolves were usually never found - alive anyway. Hutch knew from experiences that he wished he never had to go through that missing wolves were usually found after they were already dead or when they were taking their last breaths. He recalled how the last missing wolf, before Kate and Humphrey were married, had been found dead, half eaten by a rapid grizzly bear that had almost taken the lives of all the members of the search party, too.

When the Beta wolf finally reached the base of The Howling Rock, there were no fresh tracks of any of the missing wolves. The freshest tracks were of the vegetarians Reba and Janice, and those tracks were from early in the morning. (It was mid afternoon now.) The freshest tracks of the missing guards, however, were, from the previous night. More worrying was the strong odor of death - some of it stronger than others. There was the smell of blood and rotting flesh coming from, of all places, the box canyon in which Claws and Scar had last seen Reba and Janice going into, but never coming out of. That was not good. Between the very familiar odor of death and what was known about the last known location of the missing wolves, Hutch had every reason to be deeply disturbed. He was thinking about how he should have brought back up with him; he was thinking about how he should not have come here alone to begin with. He was just picking up another scent that could tie up all the questions he had: the also too familiar scent of rogue wolves from Banff. Hutch had been present for both battles involving these wolves. He was extremely familiar with their scent. No other wolves had the scent of old, dry blood and the odor a wolf had as a result of days upon days of not taking baths. The Banff wolves _never_ bathed and they often took part in blood sports. Both resulted in them not smelling all that great.

But what Hutch actually saw in the box canyon was yet another third he had not expected to bear witness to on this day. The scene before him made Hutch throw up his last meal, the caribou he had eaten not even an hour ago. All over the box canyon was a mess of torn apart wolves, their body parts and internal organs everywhere. This was far from the worst part. The _worst_ thing about this all was that Hutch was still able to recognize who each of the deceased wolves had been, despite the ravaged condition of their corpses. The three male wolves were Betas, like Hutch, and his hunting partners, the ones who had been missing since the previous night's Moonlight Howl. The fourth deceased wolf was a female, laying by a boulder. Around her neck was several floor necklaces that were now caked in dried blood. But Hutch knew who she was because he had seen these flower necklaces before on a wolf with this brown-yellow hue of fur. It was Janice.

Hutch finally relaxed as best he could and stopped vomiting. He looked around the small box canyon. There was not a single living thing in the box canyon other than Hutch. Everything else was dead. The stench was unbearable and Hutch had his nose covered with his right forepaw. It didn't make much of a difference, though. What he knew was, without any doubt, was that whoever had killed - no, _slaughtered_ - these wolves had to have been wolves. The bites marks and scratches were very familiar and they were too similar to those of a wolf...wolves. Yet, Hutch had never seen this kind of damage inflicted by wolves before. Panicking, Hutch needed to get this news, as disturbing as it was, back to Kate before she sent out an entire search-and-rescue party, in vain, for Janice and the guards. It could even put them at risk of ending up like this. But Reba...there was no evidence of Reba being dead, but there was a trail of her blood leaving the canyon.

* * *

"Now, Hutch, tell us what you saw there, at The Howling Rock," Kate said upon Hutch's return to the valley, and noticing how sick he looked. Humphrey, Princess, Claws, Scar, Candu and several other wolves were present.

Hutch intended to tell Kate about everything he had seen at The Howling Rock, but the Beta wolf hesitated upon realizing that two important wolves were not present: Lilly and Garth. Hutch said that they should be here to hear what he had to say. The rest of the Alpha family - the pups and older generations - had just arrived.

"Hutch is right," Kate said to the group. "She turned to Princess. "Princess. I want you to find them as soon as possible." Princess recalled how Lilly and Garth had left the meeting ground earlier this morning, angry at Reba and Janice, because Janice had unintentionally thrown flowers on them. It was not very long ago when the couple had left for the tall grass.

* * *

Lilly and Garth had called the tall grass located between The Howling Rock and the valley home ever since their marriage, despite the pressing of their parents to live in a cave like other wolves did, like wolves should. (Tony had once offered to give his cave up to Lilly and Garth, but they had kindly refused.) They chose life in the grass over life in a cave, after their marriage, because they had spent their entire lives in their parents' caves, and, honestly, they found it uncomfortable. They were also tired of life in caves because it offered little privacy. They had unfortunately been seen at the worst time by Hutch. Garth had been about to do things to Lilly that no wolf wanted to see. Needless to say, Lilly had been embarrassed, even though Hutch would not say anything. It was this incident that had provoked them to give up life in a cave.

There was some commotion coming from the grassy field. The grass was shaking as if the wind was blowing, but it wasn't. There was some shouting of names and some cries of pleasure coming from the grass, but there was nothing to do with wolves being killed going on, this time. Life was being made in this field by the wolves in it rather than being taken away by rogue wolves. It was the voices of Lilly and Garth, whom were screaming each others' names. As they had intended, and hoped for, no one heard them because of the isolation of where they lived in this field. Isolation and privacy were the only things Lilly and Garth wanted, whether they were doing anything or not. Now was the best time for them to have some privacy.

Garth had mounted Lilly from behind and he was thrusting himself in and out of Lilly. It was their first time doing this, so Lilly was feeling a miniscule amount of pain, but it was overshadowed by how good she felt from Garth's continuous thrusting. Garth's tail was against the truck of a tree, and Lilly's tail was between his front and hind leg, on the right side, brushing against his side. Lilly was so much smaller than Garth that all of her hips, including her hind legs, fit between Garth's hind legs. Garth had his front legs over Lilly's shoulders; her head was pressed against his chest. The heavy breathing, crying and shouting coming from these two wolves intensified as time went by. Lilly was begging for her mate to go faster, and so he did. Garth was making Lilly feel better every time he thrusted. Within another few minutes, after which they had been going at it for at least seven minutes, or so, Garth had a feeling that he, and Lilly, had been waiting for. He could feel something moving through him down low. Garth had no time to warn Lilly before it happened.

Garth's mouth opened wide and his tongue shot out of his mouth as he reached his climax, giving Lilly what she had wanted for some time, by filling her with his fluids. He screamed with pleasure, his eyes wide open. Lilly also cried out in pleasure, feeling all warm on the inside now. Only she had her eyes closed to the point of not seeing anything. Everything was black for Lilly. When she stuck her front legs out in front of her, that was the end of it. Lilly's head collapsed between her front legs, and Garth collapsed on top of Lilly. His head stretched beyond her's, because his body was much larger than Lilly's. They told each other that they loved each other and then fell asleep. They did not know that this would be the last time they did anything together, including sleeping with each other...

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Princess finally found the tall grassy field, the one that Lilly and Garth called home. Or at least she hoped she had! Princess had gone through a painstaking search just trying to find this field. She had gone all the way through at least seven other fields first, and asking for directions from so many individual wolves, or families, that she had lost count of how many wolves she had spoke to. Maybe it would have been a little more wise of Princess to ask Kate or any other of Lilly's and Garth's relatives about where this field was. After all, all of their relatives had been there, at the meeting grounds of the territory, outside Kate's and Humphrey's cave. (Princess was the only relation of Lilly and Garth who did not know the location of their field until now.) All of this made Princess, usually a very smart and reasonable wolf, feeling only foolish for not asking directions before leaving. Maybe she could have been back in the valley with Lilly and Garth by now if she had!

Princess sighed with exhausted frustration just before thinking that she could hear faint snoring coming from the center of the field. She had been nosing her way through the field for about ten minutes before she heard this noise. Once again, Princess rushed into things, this time the grass, and, once again, she regretted doing so. _A lot_ this time. When Princess's head shot through the tall blades of grass, her jaw hit the ground. The very last thing that Princess had expected to come across was this: Garth behind Lilly in the mating position, and a white-yellow fluid underneath them. Maybe she should have thought about this. It was mating season in Jasper Park, after all!

_What is wrong with me?_ thought Princess. _I am not thinking straight, just rushing into things all the time, like I am!_ Princess was blushing so red that it showed through her fur and her cheeks looked like two tomatoes, as if she had actually poked her head through the grass when these two had been in the act of mating. _Thank goodness I didn't!_ she thought. _I wouldn't died of embarrassment!_ But what was the brown she-Beta wolf supposed to do now? Princess was here to bring Lilly and Garth back to the meeting area. Kate and the others were probably getting impatient with her. (And Hutch getting worried again.) Lilly and Garth were completely unaware of the fact that Reba and Janice, and three other wolves, had gone mission.

Princess made the decision that she would just do what was best for her pack, even if her actions meant angering these two wolves, more than Janice had. There were more important things to worry about, now, than just upsetting two wolves. Five wolves could be DEAD! She screamed "LILLY! GARTH!" as loud as she could, at the top of her longs, and Princess had some powerful lungs in her breast. It did hurt her throat, though. She was coughing when Lilly and Garth woke up. Lilly and Garth were wide-eyed with shock, now setting up on their haunches, innocently.

"Yes, Princess?" Lilly asked in a nonchalant voice. Her and Garth could only hope that Princess wouldn't say about how they knew she had seen them.

Princess recovered her voice long enough just to say this: "You are needed at the meeting ground. _Now._ It involves Reba and Janice, and three guards, who went missing at The Howling Rock. Hutch has news about them..."


	7. Suspicion

**Chapter Six**

**Suspicion**

When Lilly, Princess and Garth returned to the meeting grounds near the cave of Kate and Humphrey, once Winston's and Eve's, Hutch told the Alpha family about every single thing that he had seen in the box canyon. It made them sick, it shocked them, and upset them all. At least four of their friends were dead and one wounded and alone out there! For Lilly and Garth, it hit them extra hard because they had been hostile towards the vegetarians, and now one of them had been killed. Garth was silent and stone faced, and Lilly weeping. They both felt regret and hated themselves for how they had treated Janice only an hour before her murder. Claudette and Princess were trying to comfort Lilly and Garth, to no avail.

"Do you have any idea as to who killed Janice and the guards?" Eve asked softly.

"Yes," said Hutch. "When I was in that box canyon, I had picked up the scent of some unfamiliar wolves. It was a mixture of old, dried blood and the odor of wolves who haven't bathed in a while. You tell me what kind of wolves have that smell. Only one group..."

Princess's ears and hackles rose. "The rogues wolves of Banff?!" she screamed. "Are you pulling my tail? They'd never have the guts to come here since I tore King's throat out and his mate was left with a broken back!" Princess refused to address King and Queen, her parents, as "mother" and "father" because of everything they had done to ruin her life, to make her life a living hell for two years.

"I know their scent, Princess. I know you don't want it to be them, but..."

"Those damn wolves made my life hell, and they almost Kate and Runt! There are no 'buts' unless you want to talk to MINE! I don't want to hear it, Hutch!" Princess angrily turned around so her butt was facing Hutch. She stuck her head in the sand like an ostrich would so she wouldn't hear any more of it.

"Hutch," Tony said, to change the subject. "Are you willing to lead us to the Box canyon?

"Yes and no. I will, but you all must be ready for the worst..."

"...my...God..." gasped Kate. All of her family, plus Hutch, had just arrived at the massacre sight in the box canyon at The Howling Rock. Many of them, if not all of them, were puking the guts up, even Princess, the strongest-willed wolf present, who was used to hellish scenes like this. Lilly had fainted; now, she was being fanned by the tails of Garth and Fleet, who were hoping it would wake her up.

"This is so much worse than I thought," said Winston, between labored breaths. He was trying not to vomit again, but he failed and he did it all over Eve, his mate, who had been laying next to him on her belly, because she had began to feel dizzy, she felt so sick. Even screamed with disgust and then passed out, her tongue hanging out of her wide open mouth. Winston briefly fanned Eve with his tail before he collapsed with sickness.

"When do you think this happened?" asked Runt, mate of Princess, and the youngest pup of Kate and Humphrey.

"Well...I do..." Hutch gagged and held his breath for a minute. "...do not want to get all that close to the bodies, but I would say that it had to have been yesterday, when the guards went missing. It had to have been, because that was the only time they'd ever been here. In the case of Janice...well, we know it was only hours ago." Hutch thought for a minute or two, with his eyes closed. "The time between these killings tells me one thing: that the killers had to have been there all the time, waiting for wolves to wander into this canyon. Thankfully they're not here now. I don't know how many of them there are."

Claws was just remembering something that she had noticed during The Moonlight Howl. It was nothing to do with Reba and Janice, who had already left the box canyon at the base of The Howling Rock. Claws, alone at the time, had seen the guards of the mountain on that night, who were now dead, chasing a minimum of three wolves away from The Howling Roc. Claws had thought that the intruders were shambling away from their pursuers, but maybe the intruders were chasing the wounded guards? Claws had assumed that the intruders were rogue wolves from Banff...maybe. The other thing which Claws was remembering, now, was screaming coming from within the box canyon, in which the corpses of these wolves were now. She had been witness to their murders - well, kind of - without even seeing it and she had gave it a thought! Somehow, though, no one else had heard the screams, as far as Claws knew, anyway, because she had been far from the others when it had happened.

Claws thought that the screaming had belonged to the intruders, whoever they were, as they were taken down by the guards. Yet it was the guards who were never seen or heard from again. The only reason three intruders could have stood a chance against such well-trained Betas was if they had told reinforcements to wait for them in the box canyon. Claws made these memories, all of them, known to the other wolves, just as Lilly, Eve and Winston were waking from their unconscious states. Princess started licking Lilly's head in a vain attempt to keep the snow white wolf calm. Lilly's tongue was hanging out, and she was in a cold sweat. The cold sweat meant that Lilly was feeling ill, which was understandable, being near this gory scene. Lilly was laying on her side, belly toward the crowd of wolves. When a wolf's tongue was hanging out, it meant that wolf was in heat, had just mated, or was under a great amount of street. Given the situation at hand, it was obvious why Lilly's tongue was hanging out.

Claws let her head fall to the ground. There was guilt in her voice when she spoke. "I'm sorry, all of you, that I had forgotten about this," she said. "I don't know how I could have so quickly! I'm such a fool!"

"It is not your fault, Claws," said Scar, the mate of Claws whose name came from his injuries, which were many. "You could not have know what was going on here when you couldn't see it." He ran his wet nose through the trimmed mane of his beautiful, but highly aggressive, mate. It seemed to, very slightly, have a calming effect on her guilty conscious. Claws laid down and put her head on the ground. She looked up at her superiors with what the Jasper wolves called the "guilty puppy eyes" look. It was the only time Claws had been seen crying, as an adult wolf, by anyone other than Scar, if he even had been witness to this before. It was unlikely because Claws tried not to cry in view of anyone. She was crying because she had threatened the lives of Reba and Janice, and now one of them, Janice, was dead before her. Claws felt like a pile of caribou scat because of this. Many of the she-wolves who were present were trying to console Claws, but it was not working.

"What do we do about this?" asked Lilly, her voice inflicted with an ill tone, and her lips coated lightly in vomit. "What if there are rogues from Banff here in Jasper, murdering our friends and family?"

"Then we will have to find them, kill them, and tear out their guts, then hang their corpses from trees," said Eve, a usually violent wolf. It was normal for her to say things like this. For once, none of the wolves looked at Eve as if she was crazy. They all wanted to do violent things to the murders of their friends. "We will kill them _all_ before they have a chance to do something like this again. And if Reba is still alive...we will find her. I knew Reba, Janice and these three all since they were hardly anything more than newborns. To learn that they are de...dead...it hurts..." Eve mournfully poked at the heads, all that was intact of the bodies, with her nose. Eve began weeping.

"We'll find them and make sure they do not kill again!" snarled Garth, who had also known the deceased wolves since they were young. And then Reba and Janice, of all wolves, did not deserve to die now, of all times, when they were finally living good lives!

"What do we do, now, until we find them?" asked Magril, the little sister of Fleet, Claudette's mate.

Kate thought for almost a whole minute. "All we can do now is hold a mandatory meeting...the pack knows nothing about the situation..."


	8. Reba!

**Chapter Seven**

**"REBA!"**

Hutch's missions were starting to feel repetitive. It made him wish that he could go back in time and stop this all from happening. Hutch's mission, this time, was to return to The Howling Rock again, after the meeting the valley, to start his search for Reba, the supposed only survivor of the massacre in the box canyon. The wolves had agreed that Reba should be found before a search for the killers was even thought about. Obviously, Hutch did not want to return to the sight of the massacre for a third time. Twice was more than enough. But if there was any chance, any chance at all, of find Reba, his first and only true love, then it would be all just a little more worth it. Killing the wolves who had done this all would make this all worth it. _No! Nothing will make all this hell worth it_, thought Hutch. _It will never be worth it!_ Nothing could change the fact that it was a disturbing sight. The image of his friends' mutilated corpses would aunt Hutch every time he closed his eyes or fell asleep until the day he died. There had not been a time that Hutch did not see their remains when he closed his since that first time he had seen it all. Like Eve and Garth, Hutch had known the five wolves since they were puppies. Hutch had been born around the same time as Reba and Janice. One of the deceased guards was his brother and another was his cousin. Not only had these killers taken friends from him but _family_ too.

And Hutch knew that Reba was aware of his love for her. She may even love him, too. There had been many times when Reba had flirted with him, but Hutch had foolishly turned Reba away only because he had been with friends. It hurt him more than ever now to remember how Reba had cried in response to his shunning of her, and that she had said, "I...thought you loved me, Hutch..." before leaving with Janice, to never be seen again by Hutch. That was not to say that he had not looked for Reba after this. He had been searching for Reba, to tell her that he loved her, ever since that day. Now he was searching for his love not just to tell her that he loved her but to save her life!

_If she's alive,_ thought Hutch, crying, _I'll court her and mate with her on the spot...on the spot if it makes Reba know that I do love her...I'm sorry Reba!_ Hutch would let Reba do to him whatever she wanted to, if that was what he had to do. He was hurting on the inside, to the point of feeling like his heart had broke.

Hutch was feeling absolutely miserable now that he was remembering how he had treated his love so poorly just because he was a Beta and her an Omega, and a vegetarian, because his friends had convinced him to avoid such wolves. In the back of his mind, he had always believed they were wrong to discriminate Reba and Janice. Also, Hutch was afraid of what all his friends would have thought if they heard that he was in love with an Omega who was also a vegetarian. Back then, it had been pack law that wolves couldn't marry higher or lower ranking wolves. If Hutch had broken pack law by willingly marrying Reba, he couldn't even begin to imagine what the consequences would have been then. But Hutch should have thought his heart and not his mind. In his heart, Hutch wanted to marry Reba ever since he had been of marrying age, to be the father of her pups. But he had thought with his mind, not his heart, and been an obedient Beta, following all the pack laws, remaining more loyal to Winston, the Alpha male of the time, than the only she-wolf he was willing to sleep with. Secretly, Hutch had never had a problem with their vegetarian beliefs, but it would have been foolish for any wolf to voice such an opinion, especially around wolves like Claws and Scar, who didn't tolerate the what they thought was strange behavior of Reba and Janice.

Hutch was the only Jasper wolf who was not a member of the Alpha family who knew the full story of Reba's and Janice's early life. If everyone else did, then, maybe, just maybe, they would at least leave the vegetarians alone. When Reba and Janice were only newborn pups, two small contingents of rogue wolves, in Banff, had attacked the caves of their families, one small contingent to each cave. The Alpha male of the Banff wolves long before King had been informed by supposed "spies" that the parents of Reba and Janice, and their older siblings, had been plotting to over throw him. (He had been just as corrupt a wolf as King was.) Only Reba and Janice, who had been born runts, survived the slaughter. The assassins had felt that it would have no fun, and a waste of their energy, to slaughter runts, so they had left the two pups for dead in the middle of wolverine territory.

Reba and Janice had thankfully been old enough to walk, and run, so they were able to escape the wolverines' territory without incident, because their parents had warned them about that area only two days earlier. Unfortunately, they had been forced to witness the murder of their parents and siblings. Starving, cold, bloody and in shock, the then nameless pups, because they had forgotten their names given to them by their parents, had wandered the cold, winter landscape alone for two days until they somehow stumbled upon each other. Having no hunting skill at all, because their parents had been murdered before teaching them such skills, the pups learned how to scavenge for their food, which happened to be berries, roots, grass and nuts, anything they could get their paws on at the time. Quickly becoming friends, they would not have survived without each other, for sure. After eating their fill, Reba and Janice had wandered all the way from Banff to Jasper, remarkably, until the orphaned pups were rescued by a hunting party from Winston's pup.

Thinking about the history of Reba and Janice, Hutch also thought about the wolves who killed their families. He was beginning to suspect that the very wolves who had murdered their parents four years ago may also be the very rogues who took the life of Janice, and potentially wounded Reba. Why? Maybe they had somehow heard that the two runts they had left for dead years earlier were alive, living in the pack that had caused the death of their Alpha male. It could mean that they would be after Princess and Runt, the killers of King and Queen, next! Those scumbags could still be alive, after all, since it's only been four years since they executed Reba's and Janice's families.

Hutch was so caught up in all his thoughts about Reba and Janice that he had sat on his haunches at the base of The Howling Rock, just staring at the box canyon with a blank expression on his face for at least fifteen minutes. Hutch gasped, snapped out of his stupor, and he ran into the box canyon where the murders took place. Hutch did not look at the remains, twice being more than enough times to have to bear witness to something like that. So Hutch went all around The Howling Rock thrice looking for Reba, going through every single bush, behind every single tree, rock, mound of dirt, whatever he could find she could be in or behind, three times as well. Nothing. No signs that Reba had been anywhere in the box canyon, or anywhere on the mountain, since the death of Janice. Hutch fell to the ground, feeling so hopeless about finding his love that he thought about just returning home a failure. He had failed to find Reba here, so where else could she be? Hutch closed his eyes, but that did not mean he had closed his ear slits. He could still hear, and he began hearing an odd sound like nothing which he had heard before. It was so foreign to Hutch that it took him at least five minutes to realize what it was, and that was only because the sound was coming closer to him.

The sound that Hutch hear was some sort of moaning, yes, but unlike any sort of moan or groan that Hutch knew. Then again, the only moans that Hutch knew were those of a dying animal, its throat slashed on a hunt with the pack. Still, common sense told Hutch that no moan would sound like how this one did if it was pleasure for any reason, but yet, it was not filled with pain either. It was not sad, ill, or any other emotion or feeling that could be in a moan. That was confounding Hutch beyond imagination.

"Who is there?" Hutch shouted. There was no response of any kind, unless that incessant moaning counted as a response. Hutch was thinking he heard footsteps now. Slow footsteps that were hardly methodical. They sounded sloppy, at best. Hutch lost it and went into a frenzy. "SHOW YOURSELVES, YOU COWARDS!" he roared. His strong voice echoed through the canyon.

And, as if they did so because Hutch had intentionally told them to do so, three rogue wolves, ones from Banff, yes, came out from behind a massive boulder that he had not thought to search behind. It was a good thing he hadn't, or things would not have ended well for him, from the looks of it. Every one of them had multiple, large bites taken out of their flesh. The bites had to have been inflicted by wolves. Hutch would call himself a fool if he didn't know what the bites of a wolf looked like. Each wolf also had an injury that identified each of them. The wolf on the left was missing an eyeball...no...two! The wolf in the center had no flesh at all on his chest, only exposed bones. The third wolf, the one who was on the right, had no throat to his neck. It was just an empty cavity, where it had been ripped out. Hutch did not recognize these wolves, so they had to be rogues from Banff. But that was not very important now, though, because Hutch had one burning question on his mind: how on Earth could anyone still be alive with such injuries? It seemed impossible, to put it mildly. It did answer the question about the odd moaning that came from these wolves, but it also brought up so many more questions than were answered!

The eerie moans sounded closest to ones of pain, yet Hutch could tell, even with a pathetic glance, that these three wolves were not showing any physical signs of being in pain.

"Don't you come any closer!" Hutch gave an order to the wolves, an order that they seemed to not even hear. All three kept on coming, shambling toward Hutch at a shambling pace. These rogues kept coming closer with a look that was all too familiar to Hutch. It was a look that _no_ wolf ever wanted to be on the receiving end of. The look of a hungry, starving wolf who would kill and eat anything, anyone, in their paths. They wanted to _him_ alive! He knew it! Eat him alive like they had eaten Janice and the three guards! Thankfully, they were moving so slowly that there would be no foreseeable chance of him being caught. Well, as long as Hutch moved, and kept moving, anyway. This realization was making Hutch wonder as to how Janice, at least, could have been killed if these wolves moved so slowly.

Hutch was thinking about this during his fear-fueled running, screaming his head off like a wolf who had just been threatened by Eve. Janice was a smart wolf, despite her goofy personality. How on Earth could Janice not perceived them as a threat? Their clear intentions made it obvious. And then there was something curious about the rogue wolves themselves. Why were these wolves moving so slowly? Why were they constantly moaning rather than speaking? And, above all, again, how were they still alive, and not dead, with so many life threatening injuries? Hutch had so many more questions but he just wanted to find Reba alive, if that was even possible now, and escape back to the valley with their lives. He was a brave wolf, but now, he was scared beyond belief. This was about as scared as Hutch ever had been, for as long as he's lived. Hutch didn't know how he would get all these nightmarish images and thoughts out of his mind. He never would! Were these wolves nothing more than dying cannibals who were in shock after an attack that went horribly wrong for them, even if they got to eat? Or were they...

_No!_ thought Hutch. _That is not possible! It cannot be possible! No...no...if it is, then things are so much worse than Kate, than anyone, thinks! I have to tell her what I saw..._Hutch ran for his life until he was in the long abandoned cave that had been Tony's before the unity of the Eastern and Western Packs. He was at least half a mile from The Howling Rock. The Beta wolf was exhausted at this point, but at least Hutch would have plenty of time to rest, given how slow his odd pursuers were acting, and moving. He slouched into the cave, made sure he was all alone in it, and then fell asleep. Hutch was snoring at medium volume.

* * *

The dark gray wolf slept for half an hour before he awoke. Hutch's eyes were groggy for some time and when he finally could see, he truly wished that he could not see. Laying on his side, belly toward the mouth of the cave, he had just made eye contact with a she-wolf who was moaning as she crawled across the floor of the cave. She was leaving a streak of blood in her wake. Hutch, screaming, was too terrified to move from this position. The reality was that she was not moaning but crying hysterically with pain. (The moaning was something which Hutch had imagined because of his shocking encounter an hour ago.) She was crying out in pain for two reasons. First of all, the she-wolf had a good-sized chunk of flesh torn off her shoulder, the point of all the bone showing through. Second, her belly was a sensitive area, and she was dragging it across the stone floor of a cave. It was not cutting her, or anything like that, but it was still painful. This desperate she-wolf appeared to be on the very of slipping into unconsciousness, and not coming out of it...she was on the verge of death! When Hutch finally realized who this was, he spring up from his defenseless position on the ground. The she-wolf was Reba, the surviving half of the vegetarians. But she may not be a survivor for long, from the looks of it.

"Hutch," cried Reba, "why...why didn't you stop back there, at The Howling Rock?! I...I called for you, at the top of my lungs...but...but you only kept running! I...I thought that you cared for...loved me?" She screamed.

Hutch was immediately overcome by the biggest feeling of guilt he'd ever had. How could he have not heard Reba screaming, for all he had thought about her? Could he think but not act? Really? Had he been too scared to hear the cries of the only wolf he loved, that loved him? What kind of mate would he make? _A terrible one!_ he thought.

Although it would probably do nothing at all to make things any better between them, Hutch started licking her wounded shoulder, even if it was down to the bone. Hutch only wanted to make things right, if that was even possible. Hutch did not even care about the risk of contracting some sort of infection from his act of kindness. Honestly, Hutch felt that he would deserve being infected by anything that Reba could have caught because of her injury.

"I'm sorry Reba," Hutch said. "I'm so sorry...I saw three horribly mutilated Banff rogues covered in bites like the one on your shoulder!"

Reba let out a scream of terror. Just the mention of them brought back awful memories. "Those are the wolves Janice and I saw at The Howling Rock eating the guards! They...they...tore...tore...Janice apart before eye eyes and one of them tore my shoulder open! It all happened yesterday! Oh...are you okay Hutch?!"

"Yes," he said. "I was able to get away but I...I don't know what to think anymore. Those rogues should be...should be...REBA!" he screamed in horror.

In a matter of seconds, Reba had begun convulsing violently before his eyes, vomiting up dark blood and a white froth like that on the mouth of a rapid animal. Reba's eyes were blinking as rapidly as her body convulsed. Although it seemed like it was so much longer, her seizure only lasted a minute, if that. Hutch gasped and then put his right forepaw to her neck, near her jugular vein. Reba's body had gone limp. She had no pulse that Hutch could find. Hutch could not accept the fact that his love was gone. Gone!

Hutch was weeping loudly. There was so much pain in his howling. "No..." he moaned miserably. "Not Reba!" Then he added these three meaningful words, which he had never uttered to anyone before, in a low voice: "I...love...you..." But Reba would never hear the words that Hutch had always wanted her to hear. Screaming, Hutch went into a sudden spell of shock and disbelief. The only wolf he had ever loved, had thought about fathering pups with, was dead!

But, then, there was something else Hutch noticed about Reba, two minutes later. And it may not be good...Reba's body began twitching violently. Reba let out a low groan as she looked up at Hutch. He was still crying. Hutch had been so sure Reba was gone. She'd had no pulse! So now, as she was returning to life before his terrified eyes, Hutch knew that something was seriously wrong with Reba. Dead wolves are dead! They shouldn't be coming back to life!

There was something odd about Reba's eyes. The pupils seemed to be almost invisible, with how dull of a yellow they were. In reality, Reba's pupils were only slightly darker than the color of her irises, which was a dull yellow. Hutch could not make out the whites or any reflections in her eyes. Reba's jaw was hanging at an odd angle, slightly open. A small amount of blood was dripping from her mouth. That blood was so dark red in color that it seemed to be almost black. This discolored blood made Hutch feel ill all of a sudden. But now was not a time to vomit!

"Reba...ar...are you...alright?" Hutch asked hesitantly. The only response from Reba was an incoherent moan. This response made things even more familiar than they already were. _Too_ familiar! The mutilated rogue wolves he had encountered in the box canyon came to mind, and so did their eerie moans. As Hutch backed away, Reba would come toward at a shambling place, dragging one of her hind legs, the right one, behind her. The leg seemed to be broken, although it wasn't.

This stand-off of sorts went on until Hutch realized he was not in the best position. Hutch was now pinned up against the back wall of this cave by Reba. Reba was on Hutch's lap in a position that did not allow him to move freely...to move at all! Reba was trying to bite at his exposed throat. Although horrified being thinking rationally, this struck Hutch as darkly ironic: he finally had Reba on top of him, but now she was trying to excavate his throat!

"No! Stop!" Hutch begged for his life. "I love you Reba! I love you!" Hutch started screaming "I love you!" repeatedly to no avail. None at all. Reba did not stop snapping at Hutch's throat until she got what she seemed to want. That was to sink her razor sharp teeth into the soft flesh of his neck. And that was just want Reba did. She started chewing on his throat. Blood went everywhere, increasing in amount the more Reba chewed.

Out of instinct, albeit foolishly, Hutch pushed the seemingly crazed wolf off of him. It freed him from Reba's jaws, but a ragged chunk of flesh from his neck went with her. What Hutch had thought would save his life was actually an action that would contribute to its end. As blood gushed from the newly formed gash in his neck, Reba quickly gulped down the flesh. Hutch started gasping for the breaths that he could not seem to find. Bleeding out, Hutch looked up to what may be the last thing he'll remember. Hutch only saw the jaws of his love, Reba, coming straight toward him. Her jaws were wide open.

Hutch's agonizing screams echoed in the cave, and through the forest as he was torn apart by Reba. His screams were heard by no one before everything was silent because there was nothing in the area to hear him screaming.


	9. Family Discussions

**Chapter Eight**

**Family Discussions**

It was over a half a day since Hutch had been sent back to The Howling Rock and he had not yet returned to the valley from his mission. Kate had first privately requested Hutch to go to The Howling Rock to find any sign of five missing wolves - Reba and Janice, and three wolves who had been on watch at The Moonlight Howl two nights ago. Claws and Scar, and the families of the guards were the only witnesses, to an extent, but they had supplied enough information to have the five missing wolves last seen in the box canyon at the base of The Howling Rock. Further investigate from Hutch had lead to the wolves learning that rogue wolves from Banff had taken the lives of all the wolves but Reba, who had been wounded. And now Hutch had vanished, too. A wolf like Hutch sent on a mission like the one he had been sent on should have been gone three hours at the most. But Hutch left Kate's cave almost twelve hours ago without ever making contact again. Hutch had not been seen by anyone since he left. So every minute he was gone added to the concern of all the Jasper Wolves, since there was already four confirmed deaths. Kate had ordered a sentry to go to the highest point in their territory and watch for Hutch's return. She was to send her partner back to tell Kate while she led Hutch back to the valley.

With Hutch and Reba on her mind, Kate was not alone in her cave now but with Humphrey and their pups Claudette, Runt and Stinky. Outside the mouth of their cave, acting as sentries, were the Beta wolves Princess and Candu. Together, they made a better team than Claws and Scar or Kate and Humphrey. Fleet was arriving just in time to hear what his parent-in-laws had to say. Princess and Candu let him enter. While Kate was discussing an escape plan with their pups and Fleet, the two sentries were listening in on them, because what was being discussed could end up helping them, too.

"Now, listen up, kids," said Kate. "This may not happen, we hope, but if rogue wolves, the ones from Banff, do invade Jasper, and if any of you are separated from us, first adult wolf or wolves you can, whether you look for us, Lilly and Garth, Claws and Scar, Candy, Sweets, Salty, Mooch or Shakey - just find someone who can get you all out of Jasper, and take care of you. Make sure that you tell whoever you find to go to the gas station across the railroad tracks. Hide with them in the area containing the dumpsters - if we get there first, that is where we will be."

Claudette, the oldest of the siblings, brought up the one thing that was on everyone's minds. "What do we do if something bad happens to you?" Claudette was trying not to stammer. "I mean...what do we do if both of you..." she gulped. "...die?" She began choking. It was hard for her to ask such a question. No wolf pup, even an adolescent one like Claudette, ever wanted to talk about the possibility of her parents dying.

Kate blinked one time. She did not know what to say. In fact, Kate had not even contemplated the possibility of their own deaths. To give then some sort of answer, Humphrey took over where his mate had left off. "If we die, then you must _not_ hesitate to leave us behind, for your own good, and stick with the first wolves you find and get to the station as soon as you can. The rogues will not leave Jasper just for six to seven wolves."

What Humphrey said provoked Kate to add this: "If, for some reason, you cannot find Lilly and Garth, get to Princess's cave. She will stick around for you as long as it does not mean she will die. Just find someone who can protect you all. I know, you're not puppies anymore, but I don't want any of you to be alone in a valley filled with wolves from Banff. If we don't make it, children, all that matters is you do..."

* * *

Lilly and Garth were unaware that Kate and Humphrey had involved them in the escape plan for their pups and Fleet, if the valley was attacked by rogues. Lilly and Garth had not thought and weren't even thinking about such a scenario, even though they knew everything Kate and Humphrey knew about the situation. That was not to even imply that they weren't thinking about the missing and deceased wolves. Lilly and Garth were still in deep regret about how they had treated Reba and Janice not even half an hour before the slaughtering of Janice. Slaughter was the best worst for what they had seen at The Howling Rock, and that was still an understatement! They would feel so much worse if they learned that Reba was dead, too. The worst time for this to happen was just before they had intended to apologize for their unreasonable behavior. They had been told by Kate that the reason Janice had thrown flowers at them was that she had lost her head because of being threatened by Claws. Lilly had cried herself into a short nap earlier, her guilt was so great.

Now, Lilly was laying flat on her back, one a patch of the softest moss Garth had been able to find for their living area in the field. She was feeling much better than she had been before her nap, but obviously she still regretted her's and Garth's treatment of Reba and Janice. She'll probably never forgive herself for that. Lilly had one of her front paws on her breast, and the other on her belly, which was slightly larger than it was a day ago. It was not directly because she had mated with Garth. (Her belly wouldn't have enlarged so quickly in a day, if pregnancy was the reason.) It was because Lilly had been eating so much more than what was normal for her to eat. Her hind legs and bushy tail were stretched out in front of her.

Laying in front of Lilly was Garth gently poking his nose into the soft fur of her belly. Garth seemed to be taking in the scent of Lilly's belly. Hearing something that sounded like sniffing, Lilly started to blush, her face turning slightly red. Lilly cast a loving look back at Garth, without him noticing, as his eyes were closed as he smelled his mate. Her ears laid back now, showing that she had calmed down because of Garth's actions. Although Lilly usually let her mane fall down over her right eye, that was not the case this time. Lilly had both of her eyes revealed this time.

Although Lilly was already aware of that she was pregnant with the pups of the wolf who was sniffing her belly just now, Garth was doing so with his nose to try and find this out for himself. To find out if Lilly was pregnant or not. Obviously, he was unable to know if Lilly was pregnant without her telling him, since her belly had not noticeably grown. And he was not her, so, other than being told, this was the only potential way for him to know. (A she-wolf had an instinct that involved her knowing if she was pregnant or not just after mating. And she was positive that she would be a mother, because of the feeling she had, and the fact that she was eating so much more all of a sudden.) Garth thought that he had just detected the faint smell of new life growing inside Lilly, through the flesh and fur of her belly. That was good enough for Garth.

Garth ceased his sniffing and he let out an excited yelp. "You're pregnant!" Garth barked happily. He then nuzzled Lilly's belly with his nose again. Garth laid his head on her belly. Tears of joy dripped from his eyes, and down his muzzle, onto her belly. Garth had not known the excitement of learn about being a father until this very moment in the grassy field. He was not sure about what else could be said now. He was just too happy to think of words. Lilly looked down at Garth as if to say "I know, dear." Garth was already sound asleep, lightly snoring, with his head resting on her belly as if it was a pillow. Lilly fell asleep in this comfortable position on her back, less than half a minute later.

* * *

Claws and Scar were spending time alone in their cave, their new one in The Western Territory. Their new cave was so much better than their old one in the Eastern Territory. It was not the rats that "shared" the cave with them that had made the cave bad since the rats had given them a constant supply of food during that famine, but rather the water dripping from the ceiling of the cave. It had seemed that, no matter where they slept, the water drips seemed to move with the two wolves. It had always been the greatest argument between Claws and Scar and their Alpha male at the time Tony. Claws and Scar had both, so many times, tried to get Tony to find them a new cave, but he had refused every time because they were not Alphas, but Betas. Life under the command of Kate and Humphrey was so much better than life under the rule of Tony. Everything was better. Kate had even given them an almost perfect cave. There was only one thing that Claws and Scar missed about their old cave that this new one did not have: the constant supply of rats that had helped them survive during the famine.

_All those rats would be really great right now_, thought Claws. Her reason for this brief thought was that she had just learned that she was pregnant with the pups of her mate, Scar, whom she deeply loved with all her heart. Scar had mated with her on the day Janice lost her life at The Howling Rock, only minutes before it happened. It had been just after they had finished mating when her and Scar had seen the vegetarians, Reba and Janice, whom they had hardly been able to stand, run into the box canyon at the base of the mountain, only to never come out. Thirty minutes later, Claws and Scar left immediately without any direct incident, because there had been screaming coming from the box canyon. The screams, they had thought at the time, were those of Reba and Janice. How foolish of them to have forgotten this when they had recounted this tale to Kate.

Claws was not resting on her back as Lilly had been in the field, but on her side with her legs stretched out, and her front legs resting on top of one another. Claws' hair was still cut short like it had been at the last Moonlight Howl. Her fur was well-groomed, as well-groomed as it ever had been. Despite her violent ways, almost matching Eve's temper, maybe out doing it, even, she was called one of the most beautiful wolves in Jasper, maybe even giving Kate and Lilly some competition. Of course, a wolf had to be a fool to look at Claws wrong. She would kill them in a second. The Jasper wolves knew this from experience, not from Claws killing one of their own but during the time wolves from Banff were invading Jasper. A young rogue had looked at Claws like he loved er, and she tore his heart out for it. Literally!

The once beautiful she-wolf sat up. The expression on her face was absolutely tragic. Claws had large tears dripping down her face, and her crying could be heard by Scar, who was at the other end of the cave. Scar came out to where she was, and he put one of his front legs around her waist. Claws seemed to not notice him at all. Her eyes were blood shot from all her crying, and her lack of sleep in the past day. Claws also had shadows, bags, and wrinkles under her eyes. Her mane, which was usually more well-groomed than Lilly's mane, was as tragic as her face. It was still trimmed shorter than usual, but many of the individual hairs were sticking up in all directions, or even bent or split. Claws' fur was coated with stains from sweat. In her state of, for lack of a better term, depression, personal hygiene was not something which Claws had been thinking about. She smelled like a wolf who had rolled in a caribou scat. Well, Claws kind of had recently. On her last hunt, Claws had lunged after a caribou, only to miss entirely, and lung into a pile of caribou scat instead of onto the back of the caribou. Weeping, she had come out of the pile screaming her regrets about abusing Reba and Janice. Claws had not bathed since. Her fur was even stained by the scat, which there were miniscule clumps of in her fur. Scar was the only male who did not avoid Claws now, fearing she would take her own life if she was left alone. Scar did not want Claws to end her own life. All of this involved in Claws' state of depression had been caused by the murder of Janice and the disappearance of Reba just after she had cursed the vegetarians and threatened to burn them alive. Claws regretted ever being angry at Reba and Janice just before this happened as much as she loved Scar and going on huts with him, Princess, Hutch and Candu. She was also extremely concerned about Hutch. She had heard that Hutch left to find Reba over half a day ago, and that no one had heard from him since.

"Claws, you must take a bath, you must!" Scar begged his mate. He was not telling his mate, who he loved with all his heart, that she stunk, even though that was the hard truth that Scar did not dare say in an resulting way, but that Claws needed to bathe for her own well being. All the dried sweat and the caribou scat was not good for her fur or skin. It was irritating her flesh and the follicles from which her fur grew. It was even contributing to her lack of sleep because Claws was kept awake at night not only by thoughts of Reba and Janice (her dreams about them were becoming less common, though), but also because of her powerful stench. That was the primary cause for her lack of sleep, and her lack of sleep contributed massively to how awful she looked. It was disturbing Scar to believe that almost all of this, no, all of this, was happening because Claws was too depressed to take a bath. Just one bath with some wolves cleaning her up with mosses and medicinal plants would do wonders for Claws, physically and mentally.

The mentioning of a bath only made Claws fall to the ground. She put her large paws on her head, pushing her ears down in the process, and then she cast that very "sad puppy eyes" look at Scar again. He told her that he did not want to see anything bad happen to her, that he loved her, and that her depression was not only ruining her life but his, that he could not bear to see her like this. Scar wiped away her tears, as well as his own.

Claws blinked once. "What good would a damn bath do?" she muttered under her breath.

"Everything!" said Scar, and then we went into detail as to why she should take a bath and how a bath would help her, in addition to being groomed by Candy and Sweets. It shocked Claws for him to say that she smelled and looked like she was living dead, and not literally. "Living dead," according to Marcel and Paddy, the goose and duck who had led Kate and Humphrey home from Sawtooth Park in Idaho, was a term among owls, and other birds, for when their gizzard, a second stomach, becomes still and their hearts break, too. In other words, that bird lost its sprit, and will to live. Scar felt that was what had happened to Claws, and he made it clear to her.

Claws stood up again, for she had collapsed completely. Her ears rose and any sadness in her expression seemed to have been erased. Then there was something about her face that shocked Scar in a good way. Claws was _smiling_! Actually smiling! This made Scar go ecstatic. All it took was telling Claws the cold truth about her state, and that he, Scar, loved her too much to lose her now, when they were both so young, Scar assumed. Whatever it was had worked. "I'll do it for, Scar," Claws said. "For you, and myself. I'll do it for you, and our pups...they must be born healthy next spring..."

* * *

Six wolves met at the isolated stream in the center of the valley, the stream that did not flow very far in either direction. If no animals every bathed in the water or drank from it now, then none at all would even consider doing so when those wolves were done with their business here. There weren't very many fish or any other river life in the stream. There wouldn't be any left when these wolves were done with their business. The stream would be a dead stream. The wolves were Claudette, Claws, Fleet, Scar and Candy and Sweets.

Claws stepped into the stream, and then laid down in the water so it was up to her neck. It felt good just to feel all that dirt washing off her body, and that the water was warm from the sun shining on the water. All sorts of debris was already floating down stream as quickly as washed off Claws' body from the fast current of the stream that felt like someone was massaging her body. The amount of debris, and that among it was caribou scat, had Claudette and Candy and Sweets having second thoughts about bathing Claws. Claudette was trying to hold keep vomiting from rising up her throat. She kept swallowing it to keep form appearing as rude in Claws' eyes. They would do this disgusting act of kindness and then bathe themselves thoroughly later. The three she-wolves stepped into the stream at once. They all could feel the debris matting up in the fur on their feet, and between their toes, as the current of water brought it past their feet, as they walked over to claws. Not even thinking about their loving mates helped them ignore what was happening to their feet.

Claudette went for Claws' butt and tail, rubbing all the matter out of her fur with river sponges, an animal similar to sea sponges, mixed with some sort of moss. Candy and Sweets had these as well. Candy was bathing Claws' mid torso, and Sweets was bathing everything before Claws' broad shoulders. Although this act of kindness made the she-wolves want to throw up all over Claws, they were swallowing their vomit every time it rose into their mouths. It was not something they were used to swallowing, as they continued thinking about their mates. But Claws, on the other hand, was feeling more and more better as these three wolves rubbed her down with these river sponges, taking at least a whole day's worth of dirt, sweat and even caribou scat off her body. Not only did this make Claws feel so much lighter, but cleaner than she ever had been in her life. She hardly remembered the feeling of cleanliness, but this was bring back memories of it.

It took the three kind she-wolves at least forty-five minutes to clean every inch of Claws' body and another half an hour of work by Candy and Sweets to groom Claws' fur back to how it had looked before she let herself go. In some remarkable way, none of them got any of the debris on them beyond when they had stepped into the stream, so all the cleaning they would have to do was of their paws. Although they did feel much more dirty than they were. But there was Fleet who would have to wash Claudette's vomit of his fur, because of what his mate had unexpectedly done all over him. Candy and Sweets had done in the privacy of the bushes. There were many dead finish in the river, which did not surprise any of the wolves.

Claws thanked them all, so kindly that it was almost scary, for giving her motivation to go on living, and then she went back to her cave with Scar to get some much needed sleep before the night was over. Only sleep would make all the shadows, wrinkles and bags under her eyes go away.

* * *

**Author's note:** I know, this chapter may seem out of place or odd for this story, but I included it mainly to show another side of Claws, and make readers feel a little sorry for her because of how cruelly she had Reba and Janice before Janice was killed, and what happened to Reba. I wanted to show that even Claws has a soft side. If any of that makes any sense.


	10. According to Hutch

**Chapter Nine**

**According to Hutch...**

Kate was the first member of her family to wake up the morning after Claudette, Candy and Sweets had taken care of Claws, who had been so depressed about how she had treated Reba and Janice that she had been refusing to eat, bathe or do anything to take care of herself. She had been starving, almost dead from thirst, carrying the stench of something dead, and about as unkempt as a rogue wolf. Nightmares about Reba and Janice had been keeping Claws awake at night. Another day of this and her body would have started shutting down from dehydration. She would have been dead if it was not for Claudette's, Candy's and Sweets' actions.

Every member of Kate's family was sleeping in her cave, for their own safety. Specifically, it was the wolves Kate, Lilly, Humphrey, Princess, Claudette, Fleet, Stinky, Runt, Eve, Garth, Winston and Tony who were in the cave. Guarding the cave of the Alpha family was three wolves - the couple of Claws and Scar, and Candu. Claws and Scar were here, guarding the cave because of the debt they owed to Claudette. (The couple intended to do favors for Candy and Sweets when the she-wolves, or their mates, request it.) Candu was here in replacement of the missing wolf Hutch, who normally guarded the cave rather than Candu. Claws, Scar and Candu were distracted by their thoughts about Hutch, who went missing about almost a day ago.

Kate patiently waited for the other eleven wolves to wake up before she did anything. She called for the three wolves guarding the cave to come into the cave. It would be for the best if they heard the conversation clearly, even if it would prove pointless in the end. Kate couldn't protect what all would be discussed in the end.

Unexpectedly, a much better-looking Claws spoke first. "Have you heard anything about Hutch? Anything at all? We're worried about him. A wolf like Hutch shouldn't have been gone for almost a whole day, unless he found Reba's trail...or something happened to him. Regardless, he would have had someone send word back to us. There are still some wolves living in the area near The Howling Rock. But I do fear that something has happened to Hutch. If he had found Reba, dead or alive, he would have returned by now."

"I have not heard anything sadly, Claws," said Kate, "but I do agree with what you said. I am also fearing the worst, at this point. Hutch should have been back now, or sent us a message of some sort if he had found anything. Given the circumstances, and what has already happened to almost every wolf he's looked for. I fear that the rogues found him..."

Fleet interrupted the conversation. "Am I the only one who hears screaming?" He paused. "It's not far from here." The other thirteen wolves remained silent, listening carefully for what Fleet may have heard. They heard screaming, shouting, and crying, all of which sounded extremely panicked. Then there was audible words: "HUTCH!" It was a female wolf.

All fourteen of the wolves ran out of the cave quickly, in one amassed crowd. The wolves all stopped in their tracks upon witnessing what they did. It was Hutch, the missing wolf, crawling across the meeting ground as the gathered wolves looked on and reacted in horror. There was a trail of blood left behind on the path Hutch was crawling, and it stretched for as far as any wolf could see. That made it apparent that Hutch had crawled all this way from The Howling Rock, the crowd assumed. Hutch's body was in bad shape. His throat was torn out, and his body covered in bite marks and scratches. All of these injuries clearly were inflicted by another wolf.

Hutch vomited up a good amount of blood when he tried to speak to the wolves, the Alpha family, gathering around him. Claws begged for Hutch not to speak, but he did anyway. Claws was about to explode, more so with the more Hutch spoke. "I...I...fo...found...Reba...Reba! She had...had...a bite...take out of...of her shoulder...down to the bone..." Between every few words, Hutch would vomit up more and more of his own blood, but he kept on speaking even if it meant that his words could kill him. These wolves had to know what happened to him and Reba before his life ended. "...Reba is dead...she returned to life...di-did...this all to me!"

"WHAT?!" The crowd of wolves screamed.

"Are you telling us that Reba died," gasped Stinky, "and then came back to life?"

"You mean 'came back to life'...as in like a zombie?!" asked Princess, urgently. "But there is no such thing as zombies...they aren't real!"

"Are you positive, Hutch, that is what happened?" asked Tony. It was just then that they realized Hutch was dead, his head laying in a massive pool of blood. Just as the crowd of wolves was about to begin their howls of mourning, something began happening to his corpse. It was something that these wolves had never seen before in their lives. Hutch's corpse began shaking until he stood up. His jaw was askewed and his eyes were a dull yellow. He was moaning incoherently.

"What in the...?" Humphrey began, but the gray wolf was too terrified by this occurrence to think to think of words that could finish his sentence.

All of the female wolves, excluding Princess and Claws, of course, got behind the male members of the Alpha family. Any other males got with their mates, except for Salty, Shakey and Mooch, who had the intentions of protecting Candy and Sweets. Shakey had no mate, with Janice being dead, but he did not want to see the same thing happen to the mates of his best friends, Shakey and Mooch.

"Stand down, Hutch!" commanded Winston. The wolf moved forward, shambling, disregarding the command. "I ordered you to STAND DOWN! That is an order, Hutch!" But, still, Hutch continued moving closer. It was as if Hutch was not hearing these words. Winston had no choice but to order Hutch to be jumped. A dozen wolves - Humphrey, Princess, Garth, Claws, Scar, Candu, Salty, Shakey, Mooch, Fleet, Winston and Tony - took Hutch to the ground. Shockingly, Hutch found back against the dozen strong wolves like they were only one immature wolf, if that! Hutch bit off Shakey's right foot, on his hind leg, scratched Mooch across the chest with his left hind leg, and then Hutch went for Salty. Hutch's teeth sank deep into Salty's throat. Shakey and Mooch fell out of the fray, screaming in pain. The rest of the wolves forced Hutch off of Salty. The unkempt Omega wolf hit the ground while Hutch went in the other direction.

Salty was dead before he had a chance to hit the soil, for his throat had been torn out by Hutch. It was just an empty whole in his neck, where his esophagus had been. His throat was in the jaws of Hutch, who had been throw, by the other wolves, into a good-sized rock. The rock had cracked Hutch's skull open, spilling his brains all over the ground. Blood poured from the injuries of Salty, Shakey and Mooch. Shakey and Mooch were screaming, loudly, in terror. Did their injuries mean that what had happened to Hutch, Reba and the Banff rogues would happen to them as well? And what about Salty, and the dead wolves who were already buried?

"Salty!" Humphrey and Sweets screamed in unison. Salty's best friend and his mate, who had gave birth to his pups just over a day ago. They started crying, as they started at Salty's motionless body. The females went to check on the wounded.

"No! Don't lick our wounds! You'll get sick, too!" Shakey cried. "HUTCH IS RIGHT ABOUT THE ZOMBIES!" he screamed.

Kate, Lilly, Eve and Claudette backed off in fear seconds before their tongues made contact with their injuries. The four females pulled their tongues back in their mouths and clamped their jaws shut. What if Hutch, as Shakey had screamed, had been right?

Winston was trying to stay calm, but he was failing. "It seems...that the only way to kill the sick wolves is to destroy their brain...tell me, did ANY of you bite or get wounded by Hutch?" None of the wolves said anything about being bitten or scratched by Hutch. Winston hardly relaxed though, because of what had happened to Humphrey's friends. "We must destroy the brains of Salty and the wolves are buried. Worst yet - we'll have to do the same to Shakey and Mooch. And there are at least four other sick wolves out there: Reba and the three rogues. I hope for no more..."

"WHAT?!" gasped Humphrey, and then Sweets and Candy just after. "You are going to do WHAT?!"

"Humphrey, Candy, Sweets, use some common sense. Would you three rather see Salty, Shakey and Mooch turn into those things like Hutch already did? And Reba too?" Winston lost his temper. "What would you do if something happened to my daughters or your pups just because you didn't let this happen? I know, I don't want to either, but we must to prevent anymore from being infected. It hurts me just as much as it hurts all of you!"

Humphrey, Candy and Sweets dropped to their bellies. All three of them were holding each other in their arms, weeping. They also had their tails tied together, as if for some source of comfort that they would never find. "Just do it..." Sweets gave the permission that the other agreed with. "...but we do not want to have any part in it, or to even see it!" The mourning wolves closed their eyes and covered each others' ears with their paws. They would not see or hear the rock used to destroy Salty's head. Also during the time in which Humphrey, Candy and Sweets had their eyes closed, and ears covered, the heads of the buried wolves were destroyed. No one noticed that Shakey and Mooch had slipped unnoticed. All of the wolves were buried again or for the first time.

Princess was the first to notice the missing wolves, because of their bloody trails left behind. She made it known to the others. "Did anyone see Shakey and Mooch leave?" Princess was standing up now.

Kate's eyes widened. Princess's news worried them all, mainly because of what Shakey had said when he had screamed that "Hutch was right about the zombies" at her. "They...they must have snuck away when we did what we had to..."

"Garth and I will go and check out their cave," Princess volunteered. "Shakey once told me that was where he and his friends went whenever they want to be alone. As you know, Claws and Scar had been put setting the pups of Salty and Sweets and Candy and Mooch as they guarded your cave, Kate. We'll be quickly..."

Princess went to the cave only to find both Shakey and mooch dead, with their heads crushed in by rocks in the cave. Obviously, they had not wanted anyone to be burdened with the task of ending their suffering, so they had done it themselves, to prevent from turning like Hutch had. Candy and Humphrey did not take their suicides well, even though they knew it was a better option than turn into what was best called "zombies." But both Sweets and Candy had lost their mates when one of them had just gave birth, and the other was due in five days.

Claws and Scar, and Lilly and Garth began to worry. The females had chosen to get pregnant at the worst time. This was not a word to bring pups into.

Winston gave an order for Claws and Candu to go retrieve the bodies of Shakey and Mooch for a proper burial, before any scavengers got to the corpses.


	11. Claws' and Candu's Task Goes Wrong

**Chapter Ten**

**Claws' and Candu's Task Goes Wrong**

"I am sick of all this death!" snarled Claws. "Everyone we know is just dropping dead around is in just two days! And now if may be zombies? It sounds like a load of caribou scat and yet we all saw it happen to Hutch! I don't know what to believe anymore, Candu."

"I am willing to believe about anything anymore, after what we just witnessed happen to Hutch, Salty, Shakey and Mooch," said Candu. "We cannot deny zombies as an explanation after that. Obviously, Shakey and Mooch believed it if they took their own lives just so it didn't happen to them."

"I'll never stop asking myself this, Candu," Claws continued. "Why can't things just go back to how they used to be? I mean, when we could just go about and howl with each other safely! When we could make love in broad daylight without a bunch of rogue and undead wolves killing everyone! I used to think all those young males getting ridden by their mates out in the open, like it was the normal thing to do, were crazy and had no chance at being embarrassed. Even seeing them putting it in their mouths seems like it would be a good thing now! I remember wanting to be one of those she-wolves to do it with Scar until I got what I wanted from him! I might not get to even have puppies now because those damn zombies will probably tear out my entrails BEFORE SPRING!" she roared. "If I had my choice between wolves mating all round me or undead cannibals, I would take the first option!"

"Claws..." Candu stuttered.

"I'm sorry, Candu," she apologized. "I know, I went too far." She lowered her head in shame. But sometimes honesty had to be done, even if it hurt. She knew that from when Scar had told her that she had smelled like death. And look at her now, in comparison to then. But all of this going on now, their friends dying, hurt, too! It hurt more than the truth, no matter how dark a truth it was. Claws wanted to change it all, just so none of the wolves who had died weren't dead. Even Reba and Janice! She would even want them to be alive again..._AND NOT AS ZOMBIES!_ Claws loudly thought. She would love wearing their flower necklaces and shoving blueberries down her throat more than this, and she was allergic to flowers, and she hated blueberries as much as the vegetarians had hated meat. Of course, shoving blueberries down her throat would be so much better than watching her own intestines get swallowed by undead, cannibalistic wolves.

It was the death of Hutch, the news of Reba's death, and then everything bad that happened as a result of Hutch's return to life, that was making Claws act this way. It wasn't like her. She'd loved Hutch, not as one loved a mate, but as one loved a friend, a brother, because of all they had been through before his death. They had been on so many hunts together, and even worked together greatly in two battles with the rogue wolves of Banff. All of this as allies, not enemies, since the unity of The Western Pack and The Eastern Pack, was why she had almost courted Hutch rather than Scar. Losing Hutch so suddenly was like losing a brother, his death hit Claws so hard.

Candu did not know what to say about Claws' rant, but he did not fear the sudden death of Hutch could lead Claws into another phase of depression. Candu felt bad for Claws. It's been hell for her lately. Candu looked around to determine where they were now. There was a cave at the top of a hillside, with some blood trailing up it into the cave. It was a thin trail. Candu alerted Claws. They both pointed out how thing the trail of blood was. It had to have come from the stump that remained from where Shakey's foot had been bitten off by Hutch. Claws sniffed the blood, and it was the scent of Shakey. She knew how Shakey's blood smelled because of a violent encounter between then literally just after the unity of the two packs. Taking up the beliefs of Reba and Janice, the second wolf being who he had just courted at the time, Shakey had made the foolish decision to promote those beliefs to Claws. It had been only those two there, so she had gone all out in her violent response. She took a good-sized bite out of his shoulder, getting Shakey's blood up her nostrils. Next, she had taken a hold of his tail, in her jaws, until she threw him into a cave.

Originally, with the intention to finish Shakey off, to take his life, Claws ran into the cave. It was the sad expression on his face had provoked Claws to spare his life. Claws had not been able to bring herself to kill such an adorable-looking wolf who almost gave Lily some competition for being adorable. Claws had decided just to make his wound better with her rough tongue, and then leave him in the cave to let him rest. Scar was not aware of this encounter.

"I think that is the cave Candy and Sweets had lived in with Salty and Mooch," said Candu. "Let's just get this over with, Claws." Candu, a small wolf in comparison to Claws, to any other adult wolf in Jasper, ran through the short grass, and then up the hillside. He disappeared into the cave. There was only one thing Candu had not been aware of: the fact that Claws had not followed him into the cave. Even though Candu was too small to carry the bodies of Shakey and Mooch by himself, and would need her help, Claws couldn't bring herself to go into that cave. She felt sick just thinking about it. Claws let out a depressed sigh. She shook her head and wiped tears out of her eyes, but more tears quickly formed. Eventually she gave, and just let her tears flow. There was no point in wiping them away. _None at all,_ thought Claws. She was one of the strongest-willed wolves in the valley, but all of this was too hard for her to deal with much longer. Hutch's death, as Candu had feared, had brought back a small amount of Claws' depression. Secretly, she was thinking about taking her own life, pregnant or not, she didn't care anymore, just to escape this hellish life. Wolves would miss her, but she would not miss this world as it was now. Suicide seemed so much better than going on living in this world.

Claws closed her eyes, then she sniffed the air, trying to determine what it was that she just started smelling. It was the scent, the strong scent, of rotting flesh and wolves. She had originally assumed that it was nothing more than the corpses of Shakey and Mooch. Then something, a realization, hit her just as quickly as her assumption had. _That doesn't make any sense_, Claws thought and opened her eyes. She saw nothing that would give off such an odor. _Flesh doesn't start rotting after only thirty minutes, if that, after death._ Claws knew that for a fact, being a member of the Jasper hunting pack. She sniffed the air again and realized that the odor of rotting flesh was not coming from the cave. It never had been. Rather, it was coming from all around this area, from every direction imaginable. Claws was so confused, especially in terms of her sense of smell, that she instinctively closed her eyes to think, as if not seeing anything would make this abuse of her nose go away. It didn't, and Claws started silently cursing the smell.

If Claws had chosen not to close her eyes again, and not turned tail towards the hillside for most of time, then maybe Claws would have seen the two wolves shamble into the cave. Only ten seconds later, if that, Claws heard a bloodcurdling scream come from the cave. The scream did not last very long, but it lasted long enough for Claws to know who it had belonged to. It was Candu. His scream ended as quickly as it had begun. She did not need to guess where Candu was, because she had seen him go into the cave.

Claws darted up the hillside and into the cave. Before entering the cave, Claws had thought that she heard the sound that the jaws of wolves made when they were eating. That sound made Claws back out of the cave. She only peaked into the cave, instead. Claws then emptied her stomach of all its contents, and that was a lot, because she had eaten about any meat in sight, she had been so hungry after getting her spirits raised by the kindness of the three she-wolves who had willingly bathed her. Candu was dead at the back of the cave, torn to shreds by the two wolves who Claws had not seen sneak into the cave. These two wolves perfectly fit the description Hutch had gave to them before his death. One of them was Reba, and that shocked Claws. Very little was left of Candu's body. Bits of his flesh were all over the cave, as were his entrails and bones. All that was left in one piece was his head. Candu's eyes were stuck in a look of error, on his severed, but still intact, head.

Claws looked up, now, from her vomit, still feeling like she would vomit again. But there was nothing left in her stomach other than acid, some of which had coming up with her food, and burned her throat. She was gagging now, as a result of the regurgitated stomach acid. Claws realized that the wolves who just killed Candu were now shambling in her direction. They had both heard her vomiting and then her gagging. Those sounds had not been exactly quiet. They had heard her clearly. Claws took off from the mouth of the cave before the wolves reached her. She made a very grievous mistake in her running. Claws had make an attempt to stop running before going off the ledge of the hillside, but she failed. Claws screamed as she fell at least fifteen feet to the ground. It would have only hurt badly if she had not landed on her feet. The impact on the ground broke all four of her legs. They cracked loudly, like thunder, and she screamed at the top of her lungs. They were brutal injuries. Her bones were broken at the knees, tearing through her flesh. If only Claws had spread out her legs, then the worst injuries she would have sustained would have been bruises and cuts, and obviously pain, rather than broken legs.

Claws did not look up to see the two undead wolves from the cave but at least seven different undead wolves closing in on the broken she-wolf from seemingly every direction. She realized that it was not seven undead wolves surrounding her but an entire crowd of them. It was like Claws was in the middle of a sea of undead wolves. The smell was unbearable, but Claws did not care about that. Claws hardly had time to let out a scream of terror and that was it. Claws died almost as slowly as the twenty plus wolves had taken to reach her broken body. Claws was torn to shreds by the horde, and ravenously eaten alive like Candu and many others before them. In the end, all that was left behind of the once beautiful she-wolf was a broken skeleton, bloody, laying in a pool of blood, and strips of flesh the undead had left behind.

Claws' stripped skull was stuck in a scream, with the eyeballs still in the sockets. That was the only flesh still on or in her skeleton.

* * *

The bloody and broken skeletons of Claws and Candu would be discovered by a search-and-rescue team, led by Princess, not even two hours later. The team immediately retreated without doing anything with the bodies, not of Claws and Candu, or Shakey and Mooch, who had also been eaten to the bone. It would not been wise of them to stick around for long.


	12. Attack of the Undead

**Chapter Eleven**

**Attack of the Undead**

"Kate, Humphrey! Get out here, NOW!" a she-wolf roared. Kate and Humphrey exited their cave as other wolves from their family gathered outside. It was Princess who had roared.

"What's wrong?" Kate asked cautiously.

"I found Claws outside the cave of Candy and Sweets and Salty and Mooch," said Princess, "and Candu inside the cave. They're both dead, eaten down to the bone..." Princess noticed how Scar was reacting to this news and she turned in his direction. Princess changed her tone of voice from more serious to how one would talk to a wolf pup. "I am so sorry, Scar. I deeply hate having to tell _any_ wolf that his or her mate is dead. I can offer only this sympathy, Scar. I knew for some time two years ago what you are going through now. As you all know, when I escaped from my slavery in Banff, I was left thinking Runt had been killed by the rogues." Princess was shedding tears not only for what she had gone through but what Scar was going through. Worst of all, Claws had just announced to Scar that she was pregnant with his pups, and now there was nothing but bones left of Claws. Scar knew Princess and all the other wolves were all being sincere with their condolences, but there was nothing that he wanted to say to them. He was mournfully remembering all the good times he'd had with Claws, from their puppy days to just the day before the death of Hutch. And now their time together was over forever before she had even gained weight from her pregnancy! And he would never see Claws again, as long as he lived! What did he even do to deserve losing Claws? What did Claws do to deserve being eaten alive? Nothing! Not a single thing was done by either of them to deserve this! Scar was in shock, but angrily thinking these thoughts about how neither of them, or any of the deceased, deserved all this. He hated to think about it, but not even the rogues from Banff deserved this. Scar did not want anyone to suffer from this damned virus. Claws losing her life to the undead made it personal for Scar, more than it ever had been before now. He just saw there, motionless, as his friends spoke. He did not hear them.

"I cannot believe that Claws is gone," said Fleet, holding Claudette tightly in his front legs, fearing that his _pregnant_ mate would meet the same gruesome end as Claws. The thought made Fleet cry. "How could it have happened?"

"Her legs, all four of them, were broken at the knees," said Princess. "The only way that is possible is if she had fallen from a great height. Falling from the hill by the cave Candu was in could do that." Princess cast a mournful glance at the full moon, tears dripping from er eyes. It was normally time for The Moonlight Howl when the moon was full, but none of the wolves dared go to The Howling Rock. It was too dangerous, first of all, with all the death of their friends that had occurred there. Because of all the death, it would seem as odd as this sudden full moon to even go there. The Moonlight Howl was meant to be a time of happiness and celebration, but none of the Jasper wolves could be happy with all the death of those close to them within the past two or three days. The full moon was odd because there had just been a Moonlight Howl not a month ago, but only a few days ago.

Every wolf from The Central Pack, those who were still alive, was here. They followed Princess's example and they all cast mournful glances at this out of season full moon. None of them howled mournfully at the full moon, for the best way to respect the deceased was not to howl at the full moon but to stare at it instead. This silent respect for the deceased went on for ten minutes. Ten minutes for every deceased wolf. The most vocal howlers were Humphrey, Princess, Scar, Candy and Sweets, and Winston, because they all had been closest to the now deceased wolves. Claws had been the pregnant mate of Scar, and a close friend of Princess, as well as a hunting partner. Salty and Mooch had been the mates of a still pregnant Candy, and a new mother, Sweets. Salty and Mooch, as well as Shakey, had been the oldest friends, and best friends, of Humphrey. And then there was Hutch. He had been a loyal servant and friend of Winston, as well as a friend and hunting partner of Princess and Scar, for years. Winston had known Hutch before Kate and Lilly could even speak. None of them would ever let all their memories of their friends and mates go. Never.

During the time the gathering of wolves had been staring, in silence, at this sudden full moon, Kate had been thinking about her family as well as the deceased wolves. Humphrey, her mate, an Omega whom she had known since they were just out of their puppy days, was sitting next to her. Probably more than any wolf she knew, Kate did not know what she would do if Humphrey died. She'd imagine she would probably take just as badly as Scar was taking the death of Claws. No wolf ever wanted to learn that his or mate had died in any way, whether it be natural causes, an accident, or murder. Claudette, her oldest daughter, was probably the three of her's and Humphrey's children whom was closes to Kate, but Kate was equally close to all her pups. Even if just one of them died, just one, Kate would absolutely lose it. The only thing worse than losing one's mate was losing a pup.

Lilly was Kate's little sister, and it would hit Kate especially hard if Lilly died in any way. Kate also felt the same about her father, Winston, and her mother, Eve. Of course, her parents were not young wolves anymore. Their time would be coming soon, as would Tony, the father of Tony, Lilly's mate. They were all old wolves, and age would catch up with them soon. It would pain Kate to see any of them pass away from old age, but that would be better than dying like Claws, Hutch, Reba and Janice, Salty, Shakey and Mooch, to the teeth and claws of the undead. Kate had always thought that being murdered was the worst way to die above any other potential way, but the events of the past three days changed her view on that. To die to the undead was the worst way to die! All forms of death were slow, but no death that was natural was a painful death, that Kate knew of. Being killed, especially in the being killed by the undead, was the most painful way to go. Kate did not want to do, and she did not want to see anyone else die, especially her family.

Scar, in his silent state, was only thinking about one thing: Claws. As if her sudden and unexpected death, which he could not have been there for her last breaths, as he had promised he would be once, was not bad enough, Claw's pregnancy made it so much worse. The young life that had been growing in her womb was cut short before it really had a chance to live. And Scar had lost his first mate, the first wolf whom he had wanted to marry, to mate with, so suddenly that it shocked him being imagining. If he survived this attack of undead wolves, he would _never_ mate with another wolf for as long as he loved. He would not even marry again. He loved Claws too much to marry another wolf just because she was dead. He had brothers and sisters who could continue the bloodline of his family. If he could not do so with the one wolf who had been his love, and lover, since he was young, then, Scar thought, there was no reason for him to mate. There was not even a point to marry. Scar was sure that Kate felt the same way about Humphrey, and that Lilly felt the same way about Garth. Who, in their right mind, would marry another wolf when their first true love was taken away from him or her so suddenly? No one would, in Scar's opinion. Claws had felt the same way about Scar, telling him that she would not marry any other wolf if something happened to him. At least in the case of Candy and Sweets, the female halves of the couples survived. Candy and Sweets would be able to pass on the blood of their decease mates Salty and Mooch. Sweets already had done so, and Candy was due for such an event in at least five more days, according to Eve.

Eve was probably the most aggressive wolf to ever live in Jasper for as long as wolves lived here, but now, she was just as softened by all this death as everyone else, and she had not lost a relative. That was not to begin to say that Eve had not lost anyone to the undead, however. Like her mate Winston, she had been a good friend of Hutch since Kate and Lilly were still drinking her milk in the cave, and even when Humphrey's parents were still alive. Eve had also been close to Reba and Janice since their arrival in Jasper as pups that should have still been nursing from their mothers, had their mothers not been murdered. Claws, well, Eve had not known Claws as a wolf pup, but not until the stampede that had almost taken the life of Kate after the failed wedding of Kate and Garth, when she had fought Claws, to protect Sweets, who had been fighting as best she could. Sweets was not a fighter, nor was Candy. Not many female Omega wolves learned to fight. Eve could not think of one who had learned to fight. Fighting was usually left to male Omegas, Betas, male or female, and Alphas, male or female. Omega females usually cared only about being a mother and caring for their family. They were usually not aggressive wolves, even when provoked, unless their family, and those who are close to them, are threatened. Now, if their pups are the family threatened, any she-wolf, even Omegas, will kill to accomplish protecting their family. Even a wolf like Lilly who had never drawn blood from a wolf before would lose her mind if anyone did hard to her pups, if her pups had been born yet that is.

Kate broke the silence, suddenly. "I have been thinking about this for some time now, since the death of Janice, specifically, but it is after what happened to Claws and Candu that I finally reached a decision. For the safety of us all, I recommend that no wolves travel in a group less than four wolves, in case things go bad. For the safety of my own family, and all of you, I will not allow anyone to leave their caves at night. In addition to that, I will have wolves guarding the entrances to every cave, working in shifts so the guards do not tire. This will go until every undead wolf is destroyed."

"But how long will that be?" asked Princess. "Does anyone even know _how many_ of those undead wolves there are? We only know about four. Those are Reba and the rogues that killed Janice. We cannot assume that there were different wolves who killed Claws and Candu, as likely as it is."

"I have no idea how many there are, yes," said Kate, "but we can hope that it is only four of them. This plan is about all keep everyone safe, based on what we know so far. I wish I could predict how many there are, but I can only assume that Claws and Candu and Reba and Janice have seen more than one undead wolf in one area. And they are all dead, so we will never know now. I really do not know anymore. This is like nothing any of us have dealt with before."

"Kate?" Lilly raised her right paw, to speak for the first time. Kate permitted her to speak, even though she had made it clear before that no one had to ask for permission. That wasn't very important now, though. "What if there are more ill wolves out there than we know about? I know what was already brought up, pretty much, but what I mean is, we can assume that the infection started in Banff, given that the first reported sightings of undead wolves were rogue wolves. But who infected those three? And who infected them? Who was the first wolf to be infected, if the original victim even was a wolf. It could have been a human, for all we know! How did the infection begin? Was the first infected wolf born with the virus or did he or she contract it from nature? If he or she was born with it, then the mother, or father, had to have had it, and given it to the pup when they mated. That brings up even more questions, like how did that wolf get infected, and who infected that wolf? You see, we'll never be able to know what the source of the virus is. The most plausible, least confusing, theory is that the virus comes from nature."

The wolves' hearts sank. Lilly was right about every single thing she just said. None of them had seen a wolf from Banff since the invasion of Jasper when King and Queen were killed by Princess and Runt. They had not even made any contact with the Jasper wolves through a single messenger, even. Princess was the only rogue wolf they'd actually seen since that last, bloody battle. What if _every_ rogue wolf from Banff was infected and wandering the Banff or Jasper as zombies? "I pray that you are wrong, Lilly," said Princess, "but I fear that, now, there could be hundreds of them, maybe even in Jasper right now, or in Banff. We do not know. I fear that Banff has fallen to this...this...virus...well I don't even know what to call it."

"What we do know for sure is that the virus, if it is one, is spread by being bitten or scratched by infected wolves," said Eve. "Maybe even coming in contact with blood of one, on injuries or swallowing the blood. Most of this is evident if we have pieced together what Hutch told us correctly. I feel that we did the right thing, destroying the heads of the wolves wounded by one of the undead, not just because it spares them from coming back to life as one of the undead, but also because it spares the world from having any more zombies wandering around."

"Are you one hundred percent positive that bites, scratches and contact with bodily fluids of these wolves are how spreads?" Garth argued, suddenly. It was shocking that Garth would argue with what they knew about the undead wolves. How could he? Garth knew no more about this situation than they did, unless he wasn't telling them something, but that wasn't like Garth. If he did know something, he would have told them anything he knew that wasn't known already.

"What?" Scar roared. "My mate, Claws, died to them, and you don't believe ANYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT THEM?!" Scar screamed with a mix of anger and frustration.

Garth backed up a little. He knew that he should have been careful with what he said about the situation around Scar. Garth knew that the others would be more respectful to him if it had been Lilly that had died rather than Claws. Garth apologized to Scar, from behind Eve, because Scar would not try and pass Eve for any reason, then began to explain more. "We only saw what actually happens to one wolf. That is Hutch. I do not want to sound insulting toward those who have lost their lives, but I cannot accept that it is a virus, or this prediction about how it may spread, until we actually have proof."

"What do I found one of those damn undead wolves, have them tear your throat out like they did my poor Claws and Hutch," snarled Scar, "and then we all watch you slowly die and then turn into one of them?! Then will you believe it when you are a zombie!"

"Scar!" Lilly screamed. "How can you say that?" She fell flat on her belly and began crying. What Scar said frightened Lilly, because he was talking about her mate.

Before Scar had a chance to apologize, knowing that what he said was wrong, or before anyone had a chance to correct Scar for saying it, there were bloodcurdling screams from the distance. The heads of the wolves who were gathered here spun toward the source of the sound. All over the nearby field, wolves were running around in hysteria. It was like a scene straight out of hell, when they saw what was happening. Living wolves were running through or into hordes of undead wolves, and they were being torn to pieces, or eaten alive. The landscape was red with blood. Pieces of bodies and internal organs were everywhere. This was all as far as the eye could see. Many of the victims were alive as their entrails were ripped out, and they saw them consumed by the undead ravenously tearing at their bodies. Screams of pain and horror were as numerous as the bodies, as numerous as the undead wolves. Of all the wolves who were attempting to escape the slaughter, only very few succeeded in surviving...


	13. Where are the pups!

**Chapter Twelve**

**"Where are the pups?!"**

"Claudette!" screamed Kate. "Fleet!"

"Stinky!" screamed Humphrey.

"Runt!" screamed Lilly. "Garth!"

"Princess!" screamed Eve. "Scar!"

"Candy!" Kate screamed again. "Sweets!"

They were screaming for these wolves because they - Kate, Humphrey, Lilly and Eve - in addition to Princess, Garth, Claudette, Fleet, Runt, Stinky, Scar, Candy and Sweets were the only wolves from the Central Pack who were the only known survivors of the sudden attack by a massive horde of undead wolves. The majority of the wolves had been killed off. All of these wolves whom these four were screaming for had been separated from them in the chaos. Most of them had escaped in grounds of two. Claudette with Fleet, and Candy with Sweets, whose newborn pups had no choice at survival if their caretakers were dead. Worst case scenario, the undead may have killed Sweets' defenseless pups. Scar had escaped all alone, failing to save the lives of any wolves he had attempted to save from the undead. That last group to escape had the greatest chance of survival. That group was made up of four wolves - Princess, Garth, Stinky and Runt. Kate and the three survivors with her were praying, in their minds, that all these other survivors would find either them or the gas station across the river. That was the one thing Kate had managed to tell, about her escape plan for her family, all of her pack members during the last meeting. For any survivors of any potential incident to try and escape Jasper to the gas station across the river, at the borders of the city. Even in the case of a zombie outbreak rather than an invasion of rogue wolves from Banff, living ones anyway, not undead ones, that location would still be safe. Hopefully...

Kate, Lilly, Humphrey and Eve had not once screamed the names of Winston and Tony because what happened to them made it pointless. Winston and Tony died when their family, plus Scar, Candy and Sweets, had been running across that bloody field, through an enclosing horde of the undead. Winston and Tony may have survived to be with these four, or any other of the groups of survivors, if their hips had not gave out. Kate and Lilly had been witness to the one thing that no children should have to witness: their deaths of their fathers, torn to shreds by the undead before their eyes. They would have died to, had it not been for the desperate screams of their mother Eve, for screaming for her daughters to run for their lives. Scar, the hunting partner and mate of a now deceased Claws, who had been pregnant when she had died with Candu at the hillside cave of Candu and Sweets, had been with them the whole time until Scar had made an attempt to drag Winston and Tony to safety, an act in which he almost got bitten, and suffered a sprained ankle when the two elder wolves were pulled away from him by the undead. That was the last time any of them saw Scar, although there was no reason for them to believe that Scar was dead. No screaming had been heard when he went around a bend, and they had seen nothing beyond Scar shambling away because of his sprained ankle.

The four wolves screamed, again, the names of the wolves that they had just screamed, with a last hope that at least one of those wolves would hear their name being screamed and come running. No one ever did, nor would anyone. These four survivors were all alone in this area. After the last name was screamed by Eve, the area fell into an eerie silence that sent chills down the spines of the four wolves. This eerie silence made it clear that nothing was in the area. No wolves. No birds. No caribou. Nothing other than four wolves who had not left with any other potential survivors, which seemed to be few when it came to wolves from the Central Pack. They had no idea if this was happen in the Northern and Southern wolf territories, but it was likely that it would be sooner or later. If only someone would be able to warn them. Kate now regretted not sending a message to these packs about the situation in their territory.

The silence made them fear that all fourteen known survivors would be dead within days, if most of them weren't dead already! These four feared that they would all be among the dead within days, too. _Hopefully not among the undead_, thought Humphrey darkly. They had all but forgotten about the potential safe haven of the station across the river. It was more urgent for Candy, more than anyone, that she reach the gas station first, and as soon as possible. Pregnant, Candy only had three and a half days, at the most, until she gave birth, according to an examination Eve had carried out just before the death of Janice. Candy and Sweets would never reach the safety of the gas station if she gave birth before they reach it, because they would have to settle down wherever Candy would happen to give birth, and stay there for weeks until the pups were able to walk. If that happened out in the open, then their chances of survival were zero. A wolf couldn't carry newborn wolf pups around in their jaws, or on their backs. They were too sensitive, to about everything. Naked, they had no fur to protect their bodies from the weather - rain, snow, whatever would happen, and dirt, and the teeth of their mother, if she had to carry them. Without fur, the pups would not survive the conditions of the world.

Kate and Humphrey were extremely desperate just to find Claudette, Stinky and Runt, their pups, and Fleet, the mate of their oldest daughter Claudette, who was pregnant with the pups of Fleet. And Lilly was just as desperate to be reunited with her mate Garth. Although Lilly was far from giving birth, no female ever wanted to be away from her mate when she was pregnant during a time of danger, such as this. Eve was desperate just to find all the known survivors, at the most, fourteen, and have them all make it to the gas station across the river. Eve was only thinking about a safe place to sleep, for the night, now, however, and not reaching the gas station. She would worry about that when morning came around...if it did for them. The wolves gave up on a search for a safe place to sleep half an hour later, when darkness arrived. They would just settle for a long abandoned bear cave. Hopefully they would be safe there for one night.

"Where could they have gone?!" Kate cried when the wolves settled down in the cave. "I WANT MY BABIES!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. Kate's voice carried through the cave, and out of it, through this whole area as if it were a canyon. Thankfully, no zombies were drawn in by her scream, but unfortunately, there were no survivors drawn in by it either.

"I am sure Claudette, Fleet, Stinky and Runt are all with Princess and Garth by now," Eve offered some, what she hoped would be, comforting words to her frantic daughter, and son-in-law. "Remember, daughter, that you told your pups and Fleet to find Princess and Garth if they were ever separated from you and Humphrey. They all knew that we should meet at the tall grass where you, Lilly and Garth lived, to have a checkpoint before traveling to the gas station. I have a good feeling that they are already there. All of them." Eve was being optimistic, but she did not even know how true her own words were. She wouldn't tell these young wolves about her doubts. To hear any doubts about their relatives being alive was not something that any of them needed right now, with only being at least fourteen wolves, of the hundreds that had made up their pack just hours ago, being alive.

"But, mother, didn't Humphrey tell them to avoid fields, to sleep in places that gave them a clear view of their surroundings, while hiding them from the view of the undead?" Lilly questioned her mother's statement, something that was normally suicidal to even consider doing. But Eve would never harm her daughters, and she understood for once. Eve had been incorrect.

"You're right," said Eve, panting. "I'm just so worried about them that I forgot the details of the plan. We need to get to the gas station, now, before we are found by the undead..."


	14. Two Omegas Alone

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Two Omegas Alone**

Just after midnight, two female Omega wolves were resting up in a tree, the only safe place that they had been able to find before nightfall. It had been a difficult task for one of them to get into the tree, because she was heavily pregnant with the pups of her deceased mate, Mooch. Still, sleep would not come to the two she-wolves, Candy and Sweets, because they would have nightmares about their deceased mates, Salty and Mooch. Their mates lost their lives to one of their friends, Hutch, who had been wounded by the missing wolf Reba, who had been wounded by an undead wolf and turned. Hutch had died from his injuries sustained by Reba, only to come back to life, wound Shakey and Mooch, and kill Salty. Shakey and Mooch later took their own lives by crushing their skulls in with rocks, to prevent themselves from turning like Hutch and Reba had. Although she's not seen them since the horde of undead killed the majority of the central pack wolves, Sweets had every reason to suspect that the pups that she had just gave birth the day before were dead, and so were the wolves Sweets had trusted to keep them safe. Candy and Sweets had not seen a single wolf besides each other since the slaughter began.

Candy was laying on her back against a curved limb that was comfortable to lay against. She would not fall off because of a cavity in the tree that she could sit it and not worry about losing her balance. And her balance was off because of the increased weight from the pups growing in her belly. Her extra weight exhausted her much more quickly. For that reason, Candy and Sweets had not been able to travel very far from the sight of the massacre before nightfall, because they had had to keep stopping to rest, for Candy's sake. The two best friends were fearing that Candy would give birth before they reached the gas station across the river that Kate had told anyone who survived an incident that may have happened, and then they would be stuck in the middle of this hellhole that was once a place called home by hundreds of wolves until the pups would walk. It would be weeks before then. The chance of two she-wolves, who knew nothing at all about fighting and self-defense, surviving in a place like Jasper, now, was very slim. Candy would not leave her pups behind for any reason, and Sweets knew it. Then again, Sweets could not blame Candy for that. Sweets knew the pain of being separated from her babies and not even knowing, truly, whether they were dead or alive.

Sweets, on the other hand, was not laying on her back against a tree, like Candy, who didn't have much choice because laying on her belly now was not wise. Sweets was laying on her belly, with her legs hanging off a large tree limb that would not break. Sweets could tell, and so could Candy. A thick tree limb would not break under the weight of a single wolf who was light weight for a wolf. But Candy and Sweets would only be safe here for about another three days, because that was when Candy was due to give birth, according to Eve, and Candy could not safely give birth in a tree.

"What are we going to do, Sweets?" asked Candy, a wolf with yellow, almost white, fur. "Are we the only survivors? What happened to Kate, Lilly, Humphrey, Princess, Eve, Garth, Fleet, Claudette, Stinky, Runt and Scar? I saw what happened to Winston and Tony, but...what about them?"

"I wish I knew, Candy," said Sweets, a wolf with burnt orange fur. "I wish I knew...I didn't see anything happen to any of them other than Scar...he sprained his ankle trying to save Winston's and Tony's lives. I...I cannot get that image of Winston and Tony being torn apart out of my mind. I never will." Sweets changed the subject. "Candy, do you think you will be able to travel in the morning, as far as we can the next day? We have to get to that gas station before you give birth. According to Kate, it is about a day and a half journey to get there. We can get there before you give birth if we travel from sunrise to nightfall."

"I believe you, Sweets, but hopefully Kate and her family will be there when we get there," said Candy, "I don't know of anyone else who could help deliver my babies if they are all dead."

"You would have me," Sweets said. "I'll never leave you, Candy. I never have left you. You are the first wolf I met after we were orphaned. I would never leave you behind. We have been through too much together. You and I, we kept each other alive for weeks just wandering in the wild, killing small animals like rabbits and weasels and stoats just to stay alive. Even fish, at one point. I'm sure you remember this all." Candy nodded. "I saved your life from a raccoon, too."

"What?" gasped Candy. "When? I do not remember that."

"It was three days after you and I met each other, when you were sleeping one night. I had been on watch, kept awake that night by some strange noise - I realize now that it was good I was kept awake. The noise had belonged to a raccoon; it had been stalking us for days, I assume, thing we'd be an easy meal. Well, when it went after you, having snuck around to get close to you, I heard it when it stepped on a tree branch."

"What did you do?"

"I went after it, and I drug it into the bushes, it's throat in my jaws so it could not scream and wake you, and then I broke its neck with no trouble. That was why we'd ate raccoon the day after that."

Candy looked down at her belly, and then to Sweets. "Thank you," she whispered. "Why didn't you ever tell me this until know?"

"I didn't want you to worry that I had may have been in danger then," explained Sweets. "We'd already had enough to worry about just trying to find a home then."

"And now we are homeless again," Candy whimpered. "First because of a storm, now because of zombie wolves. Who would have thought such a thing - zombies - was real? I thought zombies were just something out of horror stories that parents told their pups at night for some entertainment, or to give wolves a scare. If we survive this, Sweets, I'll scream if we ever hear another zombie story again. I don't even want to see those pieces of paper with zombies and words on them blowing through the forest again. I guess you can say that I have a fear of dead things now, at least when they are coming at me."

Sweets opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Not one. Leaves began rattling, and limbs cracked. Then there was a moaning that, at first, the she-wolves had thought was the wind, until some chewed up wolves came through the clearing, right under their tree. Sweets did not speak to Candy but she mouthed the words "Don't move. Be quiet." to her friend. Candy and Sweets froze. To avoid from reacting to the five or six undead wolves shambling right beneath her, Sweets closed her eyes. It was best not to see any more mutilated wolves. That, and, Sweets did not want to be forced to look at them for...well, she did not know how long they would stick around. Thankfully there was a good amount of leaves in this tree. The leaves hide Candy and Sweets from view. That was good if wolves like these came back, but it would be a disadvantage of living wolves, like Kate or Princess, came through the area, and they did not see Candy and Sweets, say, sleeping on the branches above them.

They had seen enough before closing their eyes to know that these undead wolves had not come here looking for them, because they were just shambling past the tree, and not attacking the tree in an attempt to climb up it and make a meal of them. It would probably take them forever to leave the area, though, because of how stinkin' slow these damn wolves moved. Candy and Sweets never would have imagined that something that moved so slow could be one of the most dangerous things on Earth, and they weren't even living creatures either! How they wished they had at least one rock up here. They would drop it on the head of one of those wolves and take it out. But then that would make them known to the other four or five that they would not be able to kill. And then they would not be able to leave the tree unless the undead got their meal or their skulls crushed in. Candy and Sweets had been witness, from a bush, early in the day to several undead wolves stalking a wolf with a broken hip. As soon as they had eaten their fill of the she-wolf whom Candy and Sweets had recognized as Magril, the little sister of Claudette's mate Fleet, the undead wolf, just one, moved on without searching the area for any more living wolves. They gave what was left of Magril, just a skeleton and some scraps of flesh, a proper burial before moving on until they found this tree. What would they tell Fleet if he ever found out that his sister had been killed?

Magril had been a sweet wolf who had done nothing, like some many others, to deserve such a brutal end, and with a broken hip that had taken away any chance of her survival. As a pup, Fleet and Magril had been subject to endless abuse from their father Nars, also dead at the jaws of the undead, just because their father had lost in The Great Wolf Games to Kate, and he did not want either of his pups to lose to Claudette, Stinky or Runt. His training of them had been so rough that he ended up overworking Magril, and he had crashed, exhausted, into a rock, spraining her little ankle. And Nars had not shown any sympathy to Magril at all. In fact, Nars had used her injury to his advantage to try and have Fleet defeat Claudette in the games, by making it a one-on-one match with no teams. In the end, it was a tie between Claudette and Fleet, who left his father's pack with Magril to live in the Central Pack. Kate and Humphrey had been willing to take in Fleet and Magril as if they were their own pups just to get them out of taking any more abuse from Nars.

Fifteen minutes later, there was still a single undead wolf left under the tree. It had not yet see Candy and Sweets, so why was it still hanging around like it had? This one was hardly mutilated, just some scratches on her body, so Sweets had been watching this wolf's every moves from a thinner tree branch that gave her a better view of it. As she was watching, laying down, the tree branch began to shake. Sweets and Candy both heard the sound of wood splitting. They looked to see the thin branch cracking at where it was conjoined to the tree. It broke off too soon for Sweets to make it back to the tree itself. Sweets was left hanging off the edge where the branch had been, screaming. It was her screaming that quickly attracted the other five wolves that had been with this one. Now they were all nipping at Sweets' heels, trying to bite her, to infect her with the virus. Candy had come to the edge, where she was trying as best she could, without crushing her belly, to pull her best friend back onto the tree with her.

Candy failed to, and Sweets' paws lost their grip in the wood, and Sweets plummeted to the ground, where she landed on her hind legs wrong, breaking one of them. Candy was unaware of this because she had been screaming too loud, for Sweets to run, for her to hear the cracks of her friend's bones. Sweets screamed that her legs were broken, but Candy would not have a chance to try and save her friend. Candy closed her eyes before the inevitable happened. She did not see it happen, but Candy would be forced to hear Sweets' agonizing screams from below as she was eaten alive by the six undead wolves. Candy would hear all tearing, even after Sweets' screams had ceased, and it was making her sick, having to listen to her best friend being eaten. Candy did not even care that she was near the edge, at risk of falling off herself. She was mourning her friend, the wolf who she had known before any other, save for her late parents, the wolf who had saved her life so many years ago, the wolf who had done so many good things for Candy.

"Oh...Sweets!" Candy cried when she opened her eyes to the sight of her best friend's remains all over the ground below, being consumed by six wolves. The wolves appeared to be ravenous.

"Sweets...no...Sweets...SWEETS!" she screamed with anguish. Then there was more cracking. Not just the bones of Sweets' body as they were chewed on by the wolves below, but the wood of the tree where the pregnant she-wolf was sitting! Candy felt the wood break beneath her weight, and she fell down to the ground, against the tree. She landed hard on her butt, and cried out in pain. If she had held in the cry, then the six undead wolves would not have even known Candy had fallen out of the tree. She could have ran for her life, despite her butt being sore from the fall.

The six wolves got up from what little remained of Sweets, and shambled towards Candy, trapped against the tree trunk as they surrounded her. Candy would remember one last thing: the jaws of six rotting wolves coming at her. Candy screamed, and her voice carried through the empty forest as she screamed "No! No! NO!". Candy's screams faded away to nothing in seconds.


	15. An Alpha's Gruesome End

**Chapter Fourteen**

**An Alpha's Gruesome End**

Far from the place where Candy's and Sweets' lives just came to an untimely end, Claudette and Fleet had just came to an end of running for their lives from the zombies that had taken their lives of their grandfathers Winston and Tony. They had been right next to the two elder wolves when their lives ended, and would never get the sight of them being ripped apart out of their minds. It hit Claudette extra hard because she had been so close to them both. Claudette and Fleet were not sure where they were now, but they were exhausted from constant running from one failed safe haven to another, and they did not have much choice beyond resting, at least for a little bit. Thankfully there were no zombies, zombie wolves, whatever they were called, here. An odor of rotting flesh alone would have gave any zombies away. So would their incessant moans. All of this going on was giving Claudette of a fear of all things dead, whether it was zombies or just plain dead, and a fear of moaning. Claudette would never want to mate again or make Fleet feel good because it would result in him moaning. Claudette could just picture how foolish she would be, with Fleet in her mouth, and then she screams just because he lets out one pleasured moan. Even moans of boredom would give Claudette nightmares. Mating, pain, boredom, anything that caused a wolf to moan would scare Claudette. But above all: the moans of the zombies would accomplish that more than any other kind of moan.

"Just lay down, Claudette," Fleet instructed his exhausted mate. "You need to rest." Claudette was panting heavily from exhaustion. Her tongue was hanging out, but Claudette did not care that it was laying in the soil in...where ever they were. Claudette and Fleet had no idea where they were, but nowhere seemed like it would be a better place to be than anywhere they were familiar with. Familiar locations were overrun with zombies. The Howling Rock? Yes. The area around her mother's cave? Yes. The area around the cave of Sweets and Candy? Yes. About any place that Claudette or Fleet had suggested for a place to rest was already known to be a danger zone for encountering zombies. But this place, unfamiliar to these two Alphas, was a landscape that was lacking grass, except for very small and rare patches of it, and those were brown, which mean the grass was dead. It was mostly rock and soil that made up the area, as far as they could see anyway.

"I know, Fleet," Claudette slurred because of her hung out tongue. She pulled it back in her mouth to speak properly. "I just cannot think about resting. I am just too paranoid after watching both of my grandfathers die."

"I know how you feel, dear," said Fleet. "I saw my father die, and I have no idea where my sister is, as you have no idea where your brothers are. Magril is not a strong-willed wolf. I cannot begin to imagine how she is taking being all alone in this dangerous world, if she is. We can thank my father for her being a weak wolf, with all the abuse he put both of us through when we were young."

Claudette let her pink tongue fall out of her mouth again, and she closed her eyes as Fleet kept watch for any danger they hoped would _not_ show up. Claudette was panting from being overheat even it was fall and not summer, and she was too tired to want to run anymore. Her legs felt like they were about to fell off her body, they were so numb. Claudette was laying on her side, with her back toward Fleet, and her belly toward the horizon. She was watching the sunset, thinking about how it could be the last one that she would ever see. It could be the last sunset that anyone could see. Normally, sunsets seemed beautiful to Claudette, but with all the events of the past few days, she found nothing about this world she lived in beautiful anymore. All of her friends were dead. All she had left was family, unless she found Candy and Sweets. But Claudette knew that two female Omega wolves, one of whom was heavily pregnant, didn't stand a chance on their own in a valley plagued by zombies. Omega females were never trained to fight. That was left to the Omega males and higher ranking wolves - Betas and Alphas.

When the sun and the day sky was gone, with the moon risen, it was dark regardless of the moon light. Darkness made the two wolves nervous. They were both Alphas and knew how to fight, yes, but they knew how to deal with things that were dead and come back to life to tear them apart mercilessly, or turn them into "undead cannibals," as Claws had often put it. _Oh, how I miss Claws!_ thought Claudette. To think that Claudette, with the help of Candy and Sweets, had given Claws a reason to go on living, and then she got ate to the bone by zombie wolves the next day! How cruelly ironic was it that, when things had finally began looking up for Claws again, she gets killed in one of the most brutal ways any wolf could imagine. And she would never have a proper burial, a funeral, either! Hundreds of wolves would never have proper burials or funerals!

Claudette cast a glance at her mate. His back was toward her, his tail motionless. Obviously he was keeping watch for danger again. But what would be the point? He had to sleep to. Yes, she could take over the watch in a couple hours, but she was already exhausted. It was a lose-lose situation for the both of them. Claudette sat up on her haunches, with her legs sprawled out in front of her. "Fleet, dear," she said.

Fleet turned around. "Yes?"

"You need to sleep. We both do."

"But then who will keep watch for the zombies?" he asked.

Claudette stared into his eyes. "Neither of us."

Fleet gave her a puzzled look. "What...?!" he gasped. "That is suicide!"

"Hear me out, dear," Claudette went on. "I mean, we will sleep in the trees. We can reasonably assume that the zombies cannot climb trees like living wolves can. We just need to find strong branches, as high as we can find in the tree, and sleep on them. My idea of strong branches would be large ones that can hold our wait for some time, whether we are laying on our bellies, on our backs or setting up. They also need to be thick branches. You wouldn't want to roll over and fall on top of a zombie, would you?"

"No," said Fleet. "But what kind of tree that is nearby do you see that has branches that could hold our weight and be as thick as you described? We are not light weight wolves, Claudette, and we are not skinny either. We would break or roll off of any branch we chose."

"There's one not far from here," he said. "In fact, turn around. We can see it from where we are now. It's probably only a foot or two, at the most, walk. It's an oak tree, I believe. Oaks are naturally massive trees. The branches will be perfect. And look how tall they are! We won't even have to go beyond the lowest branches to be safe. The lowest branches are several feet off the ground, and even those are perfect to sleep on for one night!"

"I don't know..." Fleet hesitated. He's heard so many stories about wolves meeting their end by falling from trees and breaking their necks or backs when they hit the ground. "Would it really be worth it to go up to avoid death by the zombies when we could die by falling from a tree branch?"

"Fleet, Fleet," Claudette side. "What's the one thing that Runt taught us recently?" Fleet only stared. "To climb trees! We can just climb that oak and we'll be safe at the lowest branches. We learned from the best tree-climbing wolf in all of Canada! Now come out dear, before we pass out from exhaustion."

Claudette was right. Right about that oak tree, and that the lowest branches on it would support them both indefinitely. They would sleep close to each other on separate branches, but they would not have to worry about staying in this tree indefinitely. Both Claudette and Fleet intended to leave first thing in the morning, when they were well rested, and hopefully would not get chased by a horde of the zombies that were once their friends - and hopefully none of their family, at least!

Claudette uttered these three words to Fleet before falling asleep in a comfortable position on her branch: "I love you." She was setting up on her butt, with her back against the branch, in a notch that she oddly, like Candy had, fit perfectly into. Fleet, on the other hand, was laying on his belly. She was asleep when he did it, but he told Claudette that he loved her, too, before falling asleep as well.

* * *

Morning came around, and Claudette awoke to a horrifying sight. It was not that Fleet was dead, but he was not on his branch! Claudette was laying on her belly, not setting in the notch like when she fell asleep, when she woke up, and she almost fell off the branch upon noticing that her mate was nowhere to be seen in the tree. Claudette quickly scaled down the wide trunk of the tree and started frantically running around the area, screaming for Fleet. She did not care if there was the risk of zombies being in the area. The zombies were slow anyway and the couple intended to leave this desolate field anyway. They could just out walk any zombies. It's not like that had the coordination to run or anything. _Hopefully_. Claudette gulped at the thought of the zombies running. They were dangerous enough in a horde when they were slow. How dangerous would they be if they could run? Claudette would picture even more a slaughter fest than she already had bared witness to if that happened.

Claudette circled every single tree, rock, whatever, in the area looking for her mate only to not find him after twenty minutes of effort. "FLEET!" she screamed, and started crying the biggest tears any wolf ever had cried. "Where are you? Answer me! Please! Just say something!" She tripped over a root in the ground, and sank her muzzle into her paws, and cried to herself. "He's dead...he's dead! I just know! Oh, Fleet! Why did you have to get killed! What about our pups?! What about our me?! What about are family?!" She began wailing. "How could you do this me? Don't you care about me? Oh Fleet...GIVE ME A SIGN THAT YOU'RE NOT DEAD!" she screamed louder than she remembered screaming before. It hurt her throat, but she kept going at it anyway.

When a brownish-green wolf came running from around the bend, Claudette did not see him because her face was buried in her tail, which she had blown her nose in, and used to wipe away her constant stream of tears. Fleet had been looking for something to give his pregnant mate, since she had not ate a full meal in a while, when he had heard all her frantic crying and screaming. So for Fleet to have heard all those shocking things she said, to have left his mate thing he was dead when she was pregnant, to see her like this, it was scary. Fleet should have been a little more considerate of his mate, telling her where he was going rather than just letting her sleep. It was almost mid day anyway. Claudette would not have minded being woke up to be told where he was going.

"Oh, Claudette," he cried, "I'm so sorry. I should have woke you to tell you know where I was going, but I thought it would have been wrong to wake you from your well-needed nap. What kind of mate am I, to think that letting you sleep while I look for something for you to eat, only to end up making you feel worse about yourself? I'm just as careless as my father was! I didn't even deserve to get you pregnant! I feel like a failure..." he clamped his mouth shut and his ears fell. "I'm so sorry..."

"Fleet," said Claudette, now standing over her mate, who had his paws pressing down on his muzzle. "I'm just glad that you are alive. I do not believe that you intended to upset me. You never would. And you are nothing like your father, de...dear..." Claudette froze like a shot of ice hit her directly. There was the one noise she'd been hoping to _never_ hear again. "MOANING!" she screamed, and almost dropped over as if she was dead. Claudette screamed again, and grabbed her mate's paws when something began dragging on him through on him through the bushes. Remarkably, whatever it was doing this was not injuring him with its claws.

"Claudette! It's a zombie! Pull! Pu-" his words were cut off when the zombie in the bushes pulled harder and Claudette lost grip of her mate. Claudette saw her mate pulled into the bushes, and she froze like a statue. She did not reacting as her mate fought with the zombie in the bushes. The bushes were shaking, the zombie was moaning, and then there were the screams of Fleet. Claudette caught sight of blood flowing out from under the bushes after the sound of bones cracking. Just two. Fleet's screams came to an end with all the fighting. That was worrying, but the good news was that there was no sounds of munching of bones or tearing of flesh coming from the bush. But why on Earth wasn't Fleet coming out of the bush if it was all over?

"Fleet..." Claudette whispered, and then four wolves came out of the bush. They were thankfully living wolves, not zombies, but not one of them was Fleet. They were Princess, Garth and her brothers Stinky and Runt. All four of them had blood splatters on their faces, and their paws were coated with fresh blood.

"Where is Fleet..." Claudette looked up from the ground at her family members.

The four wolves looked to each other as if something was terribly wrong. It seemed like none of them wanted to answer her incomplete question. Finally, Princess decided to speak. "I deeply regret to tell you this...but Fleet was killed by the zombie in the bush..."


	16. The Gas Station

**Chapter Fifteen**

**The Gas Station**

Kate, Lilly, Humphrey, Eve and the three pups of Kate and Humphrey, Claudette, Stinky and Runt, had just found the gas station across the river. Sadly, they were the only wolves there. Princess, Garth, Candy, Sweets and Scar had not yet reached it, and Fleet had been killed by a zombie that had been hiding a bush two days before. They were not aware that Candy's and Sweets' lives had ended miles from here, and they never would be because Marcel and Paddy, who served as messengers for the Alpha family during the spring and summer, had gone south earlier this fall, excepting an early winter. So there was no birds in Jasper to update the now eleven survivors of what was happening to the others.

Two years ago, Kate and Humphrey were almost killed by the manager of the gas station, armed with a shotgun, because Humphrey had just eaten a cupcake with white frosting, and the only other employee who had been there had thought that a frothy white on the lips of a wolf immediately meant that wolf had rabies. And then the year after that, the manager had been the only human working at the gas station around Christmas when Kate and Humphrey, with their pups, babies then, had wandered to the gas station during the first battle with the rogues, after Winston and Tony had ordered them to leave Banff. Only that time, the manager, whose name was Max, had left them alone. The family had always attributed this to the fact that he had remembered Kate and Humphrey from the year before, after finding the cupcake wrapper and _white_ frosting by the garbage can, and that the two wolves were parents now. He wouldn't have harmed them even if they had no pups with them, but Max would have been a fool to have killed even one of the adult wolves because they were parents now. The primary reason was that Kate and Humphrey, with their pups, had reminded max of his own family, whom he had pictured on the wall above the cash register. Max left the store door open, and bowls of food for the pups, for the five wolves, and then took off in his pickup truck, wearing a Santa hat, to spend Christmas with his family.

Now, one of the few humans, other than the two park rangers of Jasper, who kept the wolves safe from poachers, that Kate, Humphrey and their pups respected was dead. They found his body in the parking lot, his head destroyed by a shotgun shell. Max's shotgun was still in his cold, dead drip. Clearly he had not let go of the gun when he took his own life. But why? the wolves wondered. An examination of his body, without touching it, turned up a bite on his arm. It was that of a wolf. The wolves knew that that mean immediately. Max had been bitten by an undead wolf, and taken his own life because he must have know what it meant to be bitten by a wolf, or human, that was suffering from severe rot, yellowed eyes, and a constant shambling pace. Max had to have know that he had been bitten by a zombie, and that was not something he wanted to turn into.

Weeping, the seven wolves were gently pushing and shoving Max's lifeless body through the door of the gas station, which was not far from where he lay. A concerning factor was that the door was wide open, but a search of the building turned up, thankfully, no zombies in the gas station. Kate made sure the back door was shut and locked, knowing such things from all her adolescent days of watching the parker rangers at their station. But she did not do the same to the front door right away. As Kate had been about to shut and lock the front door, a shiny piece of paper laying close to where Max's body had been caught her attention. Taking a closer look at it, Kate had learned that it was a photograph of Max's family. Taking the photograph in her jaws, it made Kate sad to think about the family that Max would be leaving behind with his untimely death. If, no when, they found out about it - Kate knew that it was inevitable they would find his body - Kate pictured their sad reactions in her mind. What would she and her own pups do if this same thing had happened to Humphrey suddenly, and they would be the ones to find his body like this?

After making damn sure the front door was shut, locked and bolted, so no zombies would get it, Kate put the photograph on the front desk of the gas station, likely the last place where Max had sat. The family would surely search his desk for any memories of him when they came to see why he wasn't answering their phone calls. But there was one dark thought on the wolves minds: if Max had been bitten by a zombie, did that mean there was just one here, or multiple? Was it somewhere in the building, upstairs? It couldn't be downstairs, because the three siblings had searched the entire bottom floor and found no signs of one ever having been here. Of course, they were all tired from their grueling journey, so a search of the top floor could take place tomorrow morning. The door was shut and blocked by a large crate that would require more energy than the seven wolves had at the moment to push out of the way, so they were not worried about any zombies that could be upstairs, for some reason, getting downstairs as they slept. Even then, they would not sleep in the front room of the gas station. The reasons for this were just common sense. If any humans, whether it be the family of the deceased manage, customers, or police officers, came buy, they would want to at least check out that area. A worse scenario would be if zombies did end up finding the gas station, and breaking down the front or back door, then at least they would not be in that room when it happened. The only real disadvantage was that, if the other known survivors showed up, with zombies after them, they would not be able to get in the buildings quickly enough without getting killed unless they kept moving until the wolves on the inside got the door open.

Despite everything that these wolves had been through in the past few days, they were hungry, and had all had a large meal of fresh meat from the freezer once it had thawed enough to eat without chipping their teeth on it. When they were full, Claudette, Stinky and Runt went to take a nap together in one of the corners of the gas station. They were heavy sleepers, so the adults decided to take advantage of the pups sleeping. It was for the best of the pups that they did not hear this discussion. They didn't to hear any more about the situation, especially Claudette after she lost her mate.

Lilly surprised the other three adult wolves by speaking, suddenly, first. Her news would be more surprising. "Before we discuss what we do next, I need to make something known to all of you that I should not have kept secret when our father and Tony were still alive." She paused. "I am pregnant with Garth's pups. We...we did it just before Princess...told us about how Reba and Janice were missing. It was before we know anything about the deaths when we...you know. I wish more than ever, now, that Garth was with us..."

Kate, Humphrey and Eve were so shocked by Lilly's sudden news of her pregnancy that none of the knew what to say. They would be an aunt, uncle and grandmother, again, in the case of Eve. For the first time in the case of Kate and Humphrey. And Claudette, Stinky and Runt would have more brothers and sisters, if they and Lilly survived this outbreak, for lack of a term, but the wolves could not agree on any other term that fit the situation. A few minutes later, Lilly told her sister, brother-in-law and mother that they did not need to say anything about her pregnancy. Lilly knew that they were happy for her, and that was good enough for her. She told that that there were much more urgent things to worry about. The zombie wolves.

"First of all, what do we do if the zombies find the store, and somehow, they know that we are in here, and they break into the gas station?" asked Eve. "What will do all do if we are trapped in the side rooms of this building, with zombies in the main room?"

"We'll just stay in those rooms until it is over, whether that be the freezer or the office," said Kate. "Each room does have advantages and disadvantages though. The good things about the freezer are that it has a metal door that the zombies could never break down, and a supply of food. Bad news is that we would always be could in there, even if we huddled together. The office? Well, the only good things about it are that it is warm, and has a back door to it. The freezer does now. Bad things about the office are that there is no food stored in there, and the doors are wooden. The zombies could easily break them down. The only solution that I see is pushing the desk in front of the door. What do you all think is better?"

"ZOMBIES!" screamed Humphrey. And then all the wolves were torn apart.

* * *

Kate awoke screaming, panting, and trying to catch her breath. The only thing that had actually taken place in her dream that had also happened in reality as well was the conversation that took place between the wolves, minus Humphrey scream about zombies, of course. Nothing had broken into the gas station. There were no zombies in the area that posed any current threat to the wolves. Claudette, Stinky and Runt were not with them. That had been nothing more than a hope of the adults. Not they were knew it, but the pups were still with Princess and Garth, wherever those two were! The adults could only hope that the young wolves were with Princess and Garth. They would never know until they found the gas station. The same was true about Candy and Sweets, but those two would never show up, again, now that the wolves already in the gas station knew of their deaths. And no one knew about Scar's fate. With a sprained ankle, they could only assume that Scar had lost his life by now. He couldn't have survived long enough for it to heal again. There was no chance, with him left just the option of shambling around everywhere.

Lilly, Humphrey and Eve urgently ran to where Kate had chosen to sleep. "What is wrong, Kate?" her mother asked with worry. The other two were staring on with concern from behind Eve.

"Oh..." cried Kate. "I had the worst ending to a dream that I ever could have...Claudette, Stinky and Runt were in the gas station with us, but somehow the zombies broke into the store and killed us all." This lead to not only Kate crying, but the other three wolves hugging Kate, as best wolves could hug, to give her some comfort.

"That will never happen," said Lilly. "I just wonder how Garth, Princess and your pups are doing..."


	17. Five Wolves in the Grass

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Five Wolves in the Grass**

Just as Lilly was in the gas station wondering about the fates of her missing relatives, far to the west of the gas station was where Princess, Garth and the pups of Kate and Humphrey, Claudette, Stinky and Runt, were at that very moment. These five wolves were current resorting to sleeping in the trees around the area where Claws and Candu lost their lives only days earlier. The skeleton of Claws had been blood after her death, but they were almost bleach white now, as a result of a heavy rainstorm that washed all the blood off the bones. If it was not for the screaming expression that Claw's skull was stuck in, then may it would have be so bad being close to her remains. Okay, that made no sense to the five wolves at all. Whether Claws' expression was screaming or not, it would not change the fact that she was dead.

The wolves intended on traveling the rest of the day, until they reached the tall grass that Lilly and Garth had once called him, or until sunset, because it would not be safe to travel at night. If it was not before they were close to the grass, then they would stop traveling for the night. If they reached the field before sunset, then the five wolves would not do anything other than rest their aching bodies. Sleeping in these trees was not doing justice for these wolves' bodies, nor was the grueling journey. Although not one of them had been injured on their journey up to this point, or in the carnage that took the lives of, originally, all but fourteen of the wolves from the Central Pack. Since then, three of those survivors died. First was Candy and Sweets, and then Claudette's mate, Fleet. Candy and Sweets died when they fell out of their tree into the middle of six zombies. Fleet was killed earlier in the day when he was dragged into a bush by a zombie, with a broken by, and torn apart. That zombie would have, most likely, killed Claudette, who had frozen with fear, had it not been for the sudden intervention of Princess and Garth, and her two brothers. They had been given no choice but to crush the skull of Fleet, to prevent him from turning. An act that was carried out by Princess. Claudette had been taken away from the area before it occurred, and was comforted by her brothers and Garth.

Still mourning the loss of her mate, Fleet, whose pups she was pregnant with, Claudette was the last wolf to wake up . Claudette was still crying, and it the day after Fleet's untimely death. The cruel irony was that Fleet had been so paranoid about losing Claudette after Scar lost his pregnant mates, Claws. In fact, Claws was the only _pregnant_ she-wolf to die before her mate. Salty and Mooch both died before Candy and Sweets, and now Fleet was dead before Claudette. Did that mean Garth and Runt would die before their mates, Lilly? Would their mates and the three pups of Kate and Humphrey, one of whom was also pregnant, be left alone to fend for themselves? Of course, Princess could take care of herself, but she would be the only adult wolf left. It would not be easy for Princess alone to keep Claudette, Stinky and Runt safe. Of course, Garth thought that it would be for the best if he died before Lilly, because he was not the one with puppies growing inside his belly. Lilly and Claudette were the only ones with life in their wombs, and already, one of them was widowed.

"How much further 'till we find the field?" asked Stinky.

"We don't see it," Runt added.

"Fleet..." cried Claudette. The name of her deceased mate was the only word that she had uttered since his death. In all honesty, Claudette was in shock. And who wouldn't be after basically witnessing the slaughtering of her own mate? Princess pit her arms and her bushy tail around her little sister-in-law, whom she loved as much as Runt, her mate. At this point, hugging was probably the only safe way one could console Claudette. Princess was a hardened wolf, and she would probably say something that would upset Claudette, albeit unintentionally, of course. Princess put her large head over Claudette's shoulder and held her tightly. Crying, the younger she-wolf buried her muzzle in the fur of Princess's breast. Princess cast a look at Runt, then Garth.

The took that Princess gave Garth said it all. She wanted him to speak while she consoled Claudette. "If we keep going at this rate, Stinky, Runt," said Garth, to his nephews, "we'll be there in two hours. That is, f we do not take any more breaks. Whether we do take any more breaks or not is entirely up to you two and Claudette. Princess and I are not as worried about taking breaks. We have a lot of endurance. Princess and I were both born as Eastern wolves, where we under went much more training than Western Wolves to be the strongest Alphas we could be. And my father and King, then known as Slash, were probably the most strict wolves in the territory when they trained pups. And when King went rogue with many of my father's wolves, that training was even more grueling for Princess than under the orders of my father. Princess is surely the strongest wolf to ever live in Jasper."

Princess shot another look at Garth. It was a look of surprise and flatter. Princess was not at all an easy wolf to flatter, without complimenting with words that should not be said around young wolves. At minimum, one had too compliment her butt, large and muscular, because of her grueling Alpha training under the supervision of King so many years ago, that had never ended until she became a prisoner of her own pack. It seemed strange that a wolf had to say things like that to flatter Princess, but most female wolves loved having their bodies complimented or things done to it, willingly, of course. That was just natural. But what Garth said was nothing of that context. He had just complimented how strong she was because of her training. Nothing was directly said about her body. Princess could reasonably assume that Garth was complimenting her strength, endurance and survival skills. She could not say anything to Garth, to get answers from him, as long as the pups were around to hear it. Of course, Garth had Lilly, and he would never cheat on her. Princess knew that. She was just as loyal to Runt as Garth was to Lilly.

"Let's go now, then," said Runt. "I don't see safe when we are stationary, on the ground, for too long..."

The five wolves reached the grassy field just over the time Garth had said they would, two hours, with still three hours of daylight left. But they did not stop moving, however, until they reached the center of the field, where Lilly and Garth used to sleep at night. Princess had some embarrassing memories about this location that were burned into her brain. Princess had come here to inform Lilly and Garth about the situation involving Reba and Janice, at the time. She had found them there about fifteen minutes after Garth and Lilly had mated, with them still that in position, with some white fluid on Lilly's butt. Princess blush just thinking about this situation, and she was no stranger to mating, well not like Lilly and Garth had, because of the torture she had suffered because of the rouges of Banff. It made her hate any kind of contact with male wolves, even Runt.

Thinking about this brought back those dark memories of her hellish life in Banff. Quite often, those foolish males, who were in heat, came to Princess looking for some relief, because she was no more than a slave, and she had to listen to them or be punished. They had come to her so many times that when she finally lost it one day, when her father had been planning to invade Jasper, and killed one such male. Of course, Princess had been the only Omega wolf in King's pack, so it was against pack law for any of the wolves to get Princess pregnant, because they were all Alphas. So, usually even before having any chance to give the males consent, as false as it was when she had a chance to, but it was better than being beaten for hours straight by her father, she found things being stuck in her muzzle, day in and day out. Sometimes from the same wolf more than once in a day! Maybe that was how Princess had not starved to death, always getting her stomach filled with those males jui..._er,_ she thought. _Well, it was probably the most of anything I got in my stomach living in that hellhole._ All of those males who had done this to here were dead - well, _undead_, to be more precise - now, given what she had seen back in the Western Territory, with all the zombie rogue wolves, it was unlikely that any were still alive. Princess felt that they all deserved to be zombies; they were the only wolves she would wish such a fate upon and not having regrets about condemning them either. She felt so dirty, for lack of a better term, just thinking about all the times she had been literally basically had no free will when he came to them doing that to her mouth. The taste of those fluids was one that she had gotten so much of that she found it impossible to forgot the taste, or all those memories of torture - foolish males looking for relief, starvation, dehydration, beatings, insults from the other she-wolves, and so many things done to her that she was about to scream just remembering it all now. Princess only liked doing it when she was willing to, not when she was forced!

Again, the only good thing about all that abuse her mouth had taken was all that she had gotten to have in her stomach, keeping her from starvation to death, as disgusting and sickening a realization that was. Ironically, King and Queen, her dead parents, had ordered no wolves to feed her anything more than scraps and bones, but those males' seeking of pleasure had done just that. Just enough to keep Princess from being on the verge of starving to death, but still, she had lost so much weight as a result of not having all the meat a wolf should have had in his or her diet. The Alphas got all the caribou and anything else that was killed, while she got what the higher ranking wolves didn't have the room in their stomachs to eat. That was all the fragments of meat left on the bones that they had missed or just refused to eat because they were full. Either way, it was never much! Princess shook her head, trying to forgot her old life again, but she would probably always be haunted by memories of her old life in Banff until the day she died.

"Home, sweet, home," said Garth. "I guess..." He laid down on one of the blankets of moss, with Claudette and Stinky resting on either side of him for warmth; they were shivering. Princess took the other blanket of moss to rest on, with Runt. Princess was the only of the five wolves not laying on her belly. She had just thrown herself onto the moss on her side, and was too aching to want to roll over. She didn't even want Runt to push her over onto her belly. Princess preferred sleeping on her side, anyway.

"No place is home in a valley filled with zombies that used to be your friends and family," Princess sighed. But she didn't want to go into another rant about that, so she quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, once we are rested up, are we going to head to the gas station at the other side of the river?"

"Yes," said Garth. "We will. That is surely where Kate, Lilly, Humphrey and Eve have gone, given the plan Kate had shared with the whole pack before all this happened.

"Good. Well, let's all get some sleep. It's getting dark," Princess added, and then she fell asleep, with Runt resting his head on her belly, so she would know that he was with her. (Runt had been the one who heard all the screams of Claudette when she had thought Fleet was missing, or worse, and that was how they had found her. Runt did not want to put his dear mate through what Fleet had unintentionally put Claudette minutes before his death.)

* * *

**Author's note:** I know, what I said about Princess seemed odd, but it is a M rated story and a zombie story, but the reason for it was to show that her life was hell in Banff when she was a slave of the wolves there, for her actions against King in the second movie. The violence half of her abuse was actually something I was going to include in my version of Alpha and Omega 3: The Great Wolf Games.

I may continue it after I finish my re-write of this one, instead of my crossover of Alpha and Omega and Balto, because I have no ideas for it at all after Candy starts liking Steele. So if you do have ideas that would be good for that story, let me know if you want to see it continued, because I've got nothing. I'll re-write the chapters if I get tired of working on this story, but I don't know how far that crossover will go at this point, honestly.


	18. Princess's Breakdown

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Princess's breakdown**

The usually strong-willed she-wolf Princess was absolutely hysterical now. She was screaming, crying, ranting, carrying out every kind of breakdown that someone could possibly have. Just the morning after they had finally found the grassy field that had been the home of Lilly and Garth before the full blown outbreak took place in Jasper, Princess was losing her head. First of all, she had been thinking about all the deceased wolves she was close to, like Claws, Candu and Hutch, to name three. Far too many wolves she had grown close to in her two years living in Jasper were dead, and she was afraid that more of them would die in the next few days. And not many were left, that she knew of. Kate, Lilly, Humphrey, Eve, Candy, Sweets and Scar could be dead, too, for all she knew. The only wolves that any of these here had seen since the family was split up was each other. She had nightmares about the wolves whose fates were unknown to her and Garth every night since their separation, involving those wolves getting killed by the zombies, only for her, Garth and the pups to follow.

Secondly, just remembering her hellish life in Banff for over a year did not help matters any. She could not forgot all the abuse she had suffered at the paws of all the Alphas, male or female. Although many of the males only used her for their own pleasure, at least they did not beat her like those she-wolves of the pack. Every day of her life in Banff, Princess got the life beating out of her by groups of she-wolves who were apparently jealous that she was the one getting all the males "down her throat," as they had put it, and that "they had wanted in on it" more than her, an "Omega bitch" that "deserves to burn in hell for what she did to King". Princess used to always be called a "bitch," the worst insult that could be thrown at a she-wolf, and used to be told to "burn in hell" for stabbing King in the back. Verbal insults came from both male and female wolves, but it was only the females that beat Princess. The males, except for King, had not believed in beating a female wolf, whether she was stronger or weaker than them. That was the only noble thing about them, that they would not beat a she-wolf.

The fit that Princess was going through was worse than a fit of a wolf pup that was losing its head over something. She was screaming, cursing and crying out the names of all the deceased and missing wolves, repeatedly, until her throat was sore, and even then, she continued. It was as if Princess was stuck in some kind of endless nightmare that plagued her when she was awake. Garth and the three adolescent wolves were watching, shocked beyond belief at how Princess was acting. Never in their lives have they seen her act like this, and they never thought they would. If Princess, of all wolves, was losing control of her emotions, then what would they all be like in a day or two? Princess usually knew how to control her emotions, but she had no control over them now. The fit of sadness, which was the best way to describe it, abruptly came to an end about thirty minutes later.

Garth carefully approached Princess when she stopped throwing herself around like a rag doll. With Princess on the ground in a defenseless position, Garth did not know how she would react to him moving closer to her. Wolves were most aggressive when they were in a position like Princess was. Plus, a wolf who just snapped out of a fit like that of Princess's could act unpredictable, even when they seemed to have relaxed. Garth waited a minute or two before he lowered his head down to the level of Princess's head, on the ground. "Are you...okay now?" he asked, trying to sound as sincerely sympathetic toward her with his question.

Princess looked up into Garth's eyes with sad puppy eyes that were bloodshot from all rubbing of her eyes she had done to try and wipe away the constant stream of tears that had come has a result of her crying. The red cracks on her eyes were countless. "I could be better, buy yes," she said. "Thank you for your concern, Garth." She paused. "When will this end? And will be _alive_ to see it? Oh, Garth, I don't want to die..."

Garth didn't know how to answer this question. It hurt to see the strongest and bravest wolf he'd ever known acting like this. It made him want to cry with her, it was so hard to watch her have a mental breakdown. If Garth was honest in his answer, then he would be telling this already unstable, already frightened, wolf that all five of them would die in this field, that they would never see the rest of their family again. He'd have to be a fool to tell her what he was fearing, with the mental stability she had at this moment. Princess could have another breakdown, worse than the one she had just come out of. She could hurt herself or someone else without meaning too. So Garth decided to lie for the better of Princess. "Yes, Princess," he said. "We'll make it out of here. If that means I must die for all of you, then I'll die if means that you four find Kate, Lilly, Humphrey, Eve and anyone else who may still be alive out there. If I don't make it, Princess, Claudette, Stinky, Runt, make sure that Lilly knows this: I love her, and that I will be with her in spirit as long as she is in danger. I won't leave her until I know she will be safe for as long as this is going on."

Princess blinked with disbelief. Even during her two years in Jasper, as an adult, not her weeks in Jasper before being forced to go to Banff, she had never heard someone say something like this before. Especially not in Banff. None of those cowards would have been noble enough to say what Garth just had. She blinked again. "That is noble of you Garth," she whispered. "I never knew that any wolf, from any park or pack, anywhere in the world, could be so noble. I never knew the meaning of noble until now, Garth. In Banff, no wolf would have been caring enough to make the promise you just did. They were cowards. Every stinkin' one of them." She paused, then went on to say something that would shock them all. "Damn my clan for their cruelty and violence towards non-Alpha wolves, and for their cowardice. Damn those wolves of Banff for their taking of pups. Damn them for everything, even this zombie outbreak!" Garth and the pups stared blankly at her. "This outbreak began in Banff, with their wolves, we know that for sure now. I say that they are to blame for everything that has happened to us. Everything Garth! Don't disregard the truth!"

Garth sighed. "She's right. But we need to worry about more important things right now. By more important, I mean our survival. We'll rest up here for one more day, and then we'll leave for the gas station. We can get there before night fall if we leave early enough. The five of us just need to stay alive until then, until we find Kate and the rest of the survivors, if they are still alive. And hopefully they are alive, at the gas station across the river." Claudette, Stinky and Runt began whimpering like wolf pups, not adolescents, would. What if their parents were dead? Who would they have to take care of them? Eve? They hated to think about it, but Eve was an old wolf. She wouldn't be able long to take care of them. Lilly and Garth? They had their own pups on the way! Princess? Maybe. "I hate to say it, kids, but we do not know what happened to your parents, whether they are dead or alive. Sometimes the truth, even assumptions about it, hurt. What I can say, if it makes things any better is this: they are surely fine. They are smart wolves. Unfortunately, they are probably thinking that the five of us are dead. We have not seen each other in days, so how would we know if the other group is still alive or not? We don't even know about Candy and Sweets and Scar. But if there is any possibility of them still being alive, then that will be enough to keep us determined in our search for them."

"Do you have clue where they could be, if they are not at the gas station?" cried Claudette.

"They'll be at the gas station, dear," said Princess. "They would not go against their own plan. Your parents are fine, and so are Lilly and Eve." Princess ruffled Claudette's mane with her paw, ruffling it across the top of her head. This hardly made Claudette feel any better though, even though it was something both her mother and her father did to her and her brothers when they were just puppies. Then Princess added: "I am also sure that your parents have thought of some way to keep themselves and any others who are with them safe from the zombies. They are both smart wolves, and so are Lilly and Eve."

"But...will we ever see any of them again?" asked Stinky, trying not to cry. At this point, the two brothers and their sister were holding each other. Never could they have imagined that they would be talking about the chance of their parents being dead!

Neither Garth nor Princess knew for sure, but they did not want to say anything to upset the pups any further. "Of course you will," said Princes.

* * *

**Author's note:** Yes. Things are getting worse for Princess, and they it may stay that way. I know the next two chapters are terrible for Princess. I don't want to worry anything that she does or that happens to her, though.


	19. A Hellish Night

**Chapter Eighteen**

**A Hellish Night**

Night came around again, and Garth said "Get some sleep now" to the others. "I'll take first watch."

Princess laid down on the blanket of boss, taking Garth's place. With his head up against her peach-colored belly was her mate, Runt, already asleep. Runt was snoring lightly. Stinky was on the other side of Princess, laying across the top of Princess, his belly touching her back. Stinky's butt was facing the direction from which something could get him just through the grass. His tail was waving back and forth as he sleep. Claudette was the first wolf to fall asleep, with her large head resting on the butt of Princess. She was, like the other three, a quite snorer; Claudette's snoring would not wake anyone up. Claudette had an odd habit of sleeping with her tongue hanging out. Her tongue was touching Princess's butt fur, but she did not feel her fur getting wet with Claudette's saliva. She was too deep of a sleeper to noticing something insignificant like a tongue of another sleeping wolf touching the fur of her butt. Even when Claudette laid her head there, Princess had not felt it.

Before she had fallen asleep, Princess had cast a mournful look at Garth, as if to say "We won't make it out alive, will we?" Garth had shook his head at her, neither yes nor no. He did not know who would live or not, but he would do everything he could to ensure that these three did survive, even at the cost of his own life. Garth also had no idea whether they would even see the rest of their family again. At this point, he could only hope that they did, for the sake of Lilly, and for the sake of the three young wolves with him. Even for the sake of their parents. Garth was longing to see Lilly again, knowing that, because of their encounter in the very spot where the four wolves were sleeping, that she was pregnant with their pups. He had discovered her pregnancy, also in this very spot, when he had sniffed her belly. If he died, Garth knew that it would be difficult for Lilly to raise those pups on her own. There was always Kate, Princess, Humphrey, Eve, Claudette, Stinky and Runt, but Garth knew that Lilly would not want to be a burden to them.

Garth took off to the spot he had Princess had designed as the lookout mound upon their arrival, after casting one last look at the mound of sleeping wolves. The lookout mound, as they called it, was still hidden by the grass, only a foot from the sleeping area. Nothing coming toward this area would see Garth, but he would see anything so long as he kept looking in every direction that something could approach from, during his shift. He had only been there a few minutes so far but it felt like hours, because there was nothing in sight. No zombies. Nothing. Not in any direction. The fact that he did _not_ see anything at all was comforting to Garth. Hopefully it would be that way all night long, so they would not have to hide in those blankets of moss, a plan they had come up with upon their arrival, rather than running away, because of how exhausted they were. The moss the wolves slept on was a special kind of moss with a very powerful, but sweet smelling odor. It was so strong that one of those blankets could mask the scent of five wolves, for sure. Well, much more than that, but there was only five wolves here for them to worry about. If things did not go wrong, they would leave first thing in the morning for the gas station across the river.

During his watch, Garth was distracted by thoughts of Lilly, and nothing else, but he was still as vigilant as ever. Nothing would get past him as long as he was here on this mound of dirt. Garth had too much determination to keep Princess and the young ones using her as a bed alive, no matter what it cost him. He would gladly suffer an injury from the zombies, even let himself get eaten alive and torn to pieces, if it meant none of them suffered the same fate. But how was Lilly doing without him there to comfort her at night? Surely, being away from her mate during a time of extreme danger like this was the worst thing Lilly could go through, except for losing a family member. _Nothing_ was worse than family dying, and they'd all been through that in the past few days.

Garth thought about the pups of the deceased Sweets, not that he knew Candy and Sweets were dead. What if they had been separated from their mother and/or their caretakers? Naked of fur, and cold from the fluids from being born, how could they survive without adults to keep them warm? Their eyes hadn't even developed yet, and their legs could not be strong enough for them to run yet, even they even knew how! If a predator, living or zombies, found them, they would stand no chance without an adult to protect them. If they somehow did, and Candy and Sweets were dead, that would make her pups orphans. Garth knew the feeling of being an orphan, even if it had happened to him during his adulthood. As a puppy, his mother had died of hypothermia during the worst winter in the history of Jasper, when she had been coming out with what little food, just a rabbit that had froze to death, but was still thawed enough to, because she had fallen through a weak layer of snow, and had not been able to dig herself out. She frozen to death in the snow, and her body was not discovered on the spring thaw over two months later. Until then, wolves had gone out every day, at least once, to search for her. And then his father, Tony, had died because his hip gave out in the middle of an enclosing horde of zombie wolves. Princess was no different than Garth, only she was happy to be an orphan. Her father, King, and her mother, Queen, had tried to kill wolves who were now her family since she had married Runt, so to be an orphan because she had executed her own father, and because Runt had done the same to her mother, was the best thing that could have happened to her. Princess had once said, "If there are two wolves that deserve to and surely will burn in hell, it is King and Queen." She had called them by their names rather than "father" and "mother" because she did not feel that they deserved to have such titles. They did not even deserve to have given birth to her when they were alive. Better titles for them, in Princess's opinion, would be "Scumbag" for King and "Bitch" for Queen. She's been vocal about that in conversations about the rogues. Kate and Lilly may have lost their father, Winston, but they still had their mother, Eve.

Garth yawned loudly, and then he began dozing off against his own will. Within a few minutes, he was sleeping, resting his chin on his paws.

Princess and the pups who were sleeping on her like a bed were still snoring lightly. Although they were sleeping peacefully, they were not aware that Garth, the only thing keeping them safe, had fallen asleep on the watch. Or had he? There was something moving in the grass about fifteen minutes after Garth had dozed off. It couldn't be anyone other than Garth because of how silently whatever it was in the grass was moving. The grass was only rattling enough to be heard by someone who was actually listening for it. Obviously, wolves who were sleeping wouldn't hear it. The rattling of the grass was not loud enough to wake anyone, even the lightest of sleepers like Runt and Stinky.

The possible intruder came into view. It was a wolf, yes, but it was not Garth. The eyes of the wolf were glowing in the darkness, but it was clear that they were a dull yellow. The wolf started moaning in a low, incoherent way, as it shambled through the sleeping area, in the direction of the four sleeping wolves. They were unaware of the danger, but this zombie wolf was aware of the living wolves in the middle of her path. This zombie was not one of the rogues, one of the original infected, because she had no signs of the flesh in extreme rot like the rogues did. Obviously, she had been one of the hundreds of wolves who died in the attack on Jasper, or possibly before them. The lack of rot and all the excessive bite marks gave it way. She was missing both of her eyeballs.

Princess had been sleepy like a baby, something that she really needed after her mental breakdown early in the day, until she felt something rudely step on her take. She wolf up, and so did the other wolves because of Princess's sudden stirring. If Princess had not stuck her tail straight out a minute earlier, then the intruder would never have stepped on her tail. She looked up to see who it was, expecting to hear Garth apologizing for stepping on her tail. She heard no apology but moaning. And it was not Garth. She felt something drip from above her, onto her face. It was blood, when it flowed down her face, and it got on her tongue, hanging out of her mouth. The last thing she saw before screaming was the jaws of a wolf going for her throat.

* * *

Garth, still sleeping soundly, was suddenly woke up not by someone stepping on tail but the worst bloodcurdling scream he'd ever heard in his life. It echoed through the field like someone screaming in a cave. "GARTH! NO! HELP!" It was Princess and the pups screaming for help in unison. There was no audible words screamed stopped after these three wolves. By the time Garth reached the sleeping area, there was a fading away of the screaming. Garth was greeted by a loud crushing sound. Garth froze because of all the silence in the area. It was scary. What happened to the wolves he had failed to protect because he had fallen asleep? Garth rushed into the clearing. The area was bloody, and there was the corpse of a wolf laying at the feet of Princess. The zombie she-wolf that was now dead had her skull caved in by a large rock. Princess and the three younger wolves appeared to be fine, but Garth was frantic.

"Are you alright?!" screamed Garth

"Yes. We all are," said Princess. "She didn't even get a chance to injury any of us. You cannot tell who she was because of how crushed her head is, but it was Reba." Princess had been speaking with a strong voice until now, but now her voice cracked, and she was crying. "Oh...Garth, they're starting to find us. It...it's not even safe to sleep in this clearing, or for anyone to stand guard. We...we must hide in the blankets of moss!"

After given Reba a proper burial in the tall grass, so her grave would be out of their sight, the other four wolves agreed with what Princess said, and they buried themselves not in the dirt but in the heavy blankets of moss that had strong scents, that they had been using as beds until now. As when they had been sleeping on those moss blankets, the adults were sleeping on the outside with the adolescent wolves between them, for the young ones' own safety. The biggest difference was that, wrapped in both of those moss blankets, was that the two adults, Princess and Garth, were holding each other's tails. The only reason for this was, if more zombies found this area, and if one was silenced by the zombie, at least the other would know it was happening, because the body of his or her partner would feel the body of the other being pulled away by the intruder.

Sleep did not arrive for these wolves an hour after burying themselves in all this strongly-scented moss. Ever since a zombified Reba found their camp, it was impossible for them to think about sleeping. They were too worried that another zombie, maybe even more than one, would find them, and they would not be as lucky to react before getting bitten by it this time. And a bite, scratch or any kind of injury inflicted by these zombies was a death sentence. Even now, with their bodies entirely cloaked by this heavy moss that masked their scents just as entirely as it covered them, they had no feeling of safety. All five of them were forcing themselves to be as quiet as possible to prevent attracting more attention, specifically zombies, to the area. Claudette, Stinky and Runt wanted to cry, even though they were adolescent wolves, but they knew it would be the worst idea in the world to do such a thing.

Garth and Princess decided to speak to each other in whispers that only they and the pups could hear...hopefully. At least until they heard something around them.

"Why can't we just leave now?" asked Princess.

"We shouldn't travel at night," said Garth. "We'll be too tired to travel at night, and it is too dangerous. We should only travel during the day."

Princess's eyes shot open. "What! Then why didn't we head for the gas station this morning instead of waiting until tomorrow?!" she asked in a harsh whisper. "We were all rested enough to travel that far! The four of us even told you that!"

"Oh no!" cried Claudette, still trying to whisper. "I hear shambling coming closer! From the northeast!?

"How have they found us?" whispered Princess. "We have been so quiet..."

"They have not found us yet," Garth said. "Just keep quiet until it goes away..." His voice trailed off.

All five of the wolves only heard that too familiar moaning and the shambling footsteps of a zombie. Thankfully, it was only one and not multiple. Knowing how Claudette felt about hearing any kind of moaning now, Stinky had his right paw crammed in her mouth, because she had almost screamed when she heard that damned moaning that she had a strong fear of. Stinky's paw was bleeding because his sister's teeth were digging into it. Runt had to put his own paw over Stinky's mouth so his brother would not scream, either. Princess was laying on her back, her head by Garth's hip, and her hip by his head, with her front legs resting on her belly, and her tail tucked between her legs in fear. She could see the silhouette of the bastard through the moss blanket because of the shine of the moon. Even the silhouette alone put fear in the hearts of the five wolves. It was a fear like none which any of them had ever experienced before in their lives. Death was shambling over them only inches away from them in this instance. Princess was scared to death, but at least she could see where it was going. And then it was gone, out of sight!

_Where could it have gone?!_ thought Princess. Her heart was beating faster than even when she had been in battle against her own father, King. Until now, never had anything made her heart beat this fast since then! And never beating this fast, either. Princess was afraid for her life, and afraid that her heart would beat out of her breast. For some time, the five wolves were frozen with fear.

Princess was the only wolf who breathed a sigh of relief, but her heart was still beating just as rapidly as before. Princess slowly rolled over on her side. She threw her arm over Garth's belly and rested her head on his chest. She would not get any more relaxed than this until they got the hell out of this place. Where there was two zombies, first Reba and then whoever this one was, there could be the risk of more coming through here before sunrise. Princess was panting, trying to catch her breath. She even let her tongue hang out. Garth did not care that her saliva was dripping on him. It was just saliva. It wouldn't hurt him any, or at least it wouldn't hurt him like a bite from one of those zombies would. Princess closed her eyes. That was when her skin began to feel like it was crawling, specifically on her butt. That was the source of it. Then there was something else. A sharp pain coming from the skin of her butt. Princess gasped and spun her around to see what it was. It was a small brown spider with a darker brown hour glass on its underside.

"BROWN RECLUSE!" she screamed and then immediately covered her muzzle with her paws. But it was too late for that. She had already been loud. Too late because of one tiny spider with a bite so toxic that it seemed to rot flesh. It burned flesh away like acid within weeks.

With her muzzle still covered with regret, the five wolves heard a loud growl. They all screamed and then the moss was torn open. The wolves scattered. Only four of them, though. Princess was the only one who did not have a chance to escape. This male zombie wolf had gone immediately for Princess, even before any of them had a chance to get away. This wolf was not one who Princess knew. It had to be a wolf from either the Northern Pack or the Southern Pack. Garth and the pups had no time to react before the zombie sank his teeth into the soft flesh of Princess's neck. He seemed to begin chewing on her throat, causing blood to spray everywhere. In that moment, all hell broke loose. Everything happened so quickly. First, the three adolescent wolves ran for their lives right into the lake. Only the heads of the three were above the surface of the water. There was blood coming from Stinky's paw not because this zombie had bitten him but because he had forced his paw into Claudette's mouth to keep her from screaming when they had been in the moss. But now they were all screaming. And so was Garth. as he attacked the zombie, trying to get him to release his grip on Princess's throat. Garth did not realize that he had pulled the zombie off, but he threw him into a rock, splitting the skull. The wolf's brain leaked out of its skull. The zombie wolf was no longer moving. But Princess was. She was convlusing as she failed to scream, bleeding from the hole in her neck from where the zombie tore out a good-sized chunk of flesh. All because Garth had pulled the zombie off of her.

"NO!" Garth screamed, and then blamed himself for the fact that Princess could be dying at this moment, even though he had not realized what he did, as Claudette, Stinky and Runt climbed out of the pond. They did not bother to shake their bodies dry of the water. All panicking, the four wolves knew what to do because they had all be instructed in what to do in this situation by Eve, a genius when it came to healing and medicine. Twenty minutes later, after some searching and some hard work and thinking, the massive wound in Princess's neck was patched up with fragments of the moss blankets, and held down with a sticky tree sap. It was like a massive bandage. A massive mossy bandage. A watered-down mixture of the sap had also proved useful in stopping the bleeding remarkably fast, with the assistance of a plant with antibiotics in it that Claudette had force fed Princess, also shown to her by Eve. Princess was also force fed plants, by Runt, that provoked blood clotting rapidly. Things hardly calmed down within ten minutes of having Princess's neck patched up.

Princess would be dead soon anyway because of the bite she had suffered from the zombie. It was a death sentence. Garth had not believed that it was a bite from the zombies that was the primary transfer of infection, until very recently. Remembering this, the wolves who saved Princess's life had a small feeling that their actions would be in vain. They had no idea the time that from suffering an injury, being infected, to when one would turn into a zombie, was about twenty three hours. And Princess only had about twenty-two and a half hours of life left.

"When she be fine until..." Claudette, in tears, gulped. "...until she becomes one of...them?"

"Yes," said Garth. "We managed to stop the bleeding, and any infection that could have come from any natural bacteria or diseases that wolf could have had in his jaws. As for the virus that turns wolves into zombies...all we can do is pray that Princess isn't infected by it. We know nothing about how to cure this virus, if it even is one, or even what the source of it could be. If she isn't infected, and she survives, Princess will be mute because of her injury."

Garth was calm until now. The truth was that he knew there was no chance that Princess wasn't infected. She would be dead soon, no matter what they did to try and save her life. There was _nothing_ to stop the virus from taking her body over, and turning her into a zombie. "I do not know what to think anymore!" Garth lost his head. "I will say this, though: This whole world is just fuc-" Princess could no longer speak, because the bite of that zombie severely damaged her vocal chords, but she was able to stop Garth from saying that, by cautiously tapping him on the butt with her front right paw. (Garth's butt was about as high as Princess could reach. Princess was so weak from blood loss that she was ground-ridden.) Princess did not want Garth to use such strong language at _any_ time, around young wolves or not. "I'm sorry for that," he apologized. "I'm sorry..."

Princess nodded, and then shook her head around, trying to force the words she wanted to say out of her mouth, until they spilled out between gasps of pain. "I...love...you...Garth..." She would not be able to get herself to speak again, so she wanted to make the only chance she had worth it. Princess told only Garth that she loved him, for giving her one more day of life, because her voice had broke before she could Claudette, Stinky and Runt.


	20. The Last Day of Princess

**Chapter Nineteen**

**The Last Day of Princess**

"Stay down, Princess," whispered Runt. He was laying next to her. She could not speak because of her injuries, her neck torn open by a zombie last night, something that severely damaged her vocal cords. She had to resort to whimpers, grunts, and other sounds rather than words to communicate with the other four wolves. Of course, they could not understand what she was saying, and she knew that. But yet there was something about her whimpers, grunts, etc., that they could understand. Maybe she was trying to speak, but the worlds failed, and came out sounding more like the noises she made rather than actual words.

The five wolves were watching the sunrise together, trying to forget about the hellish encounter of last night. The wolves had though sleeping in the scented mosses would keep them safe until a spider bit Princess, and she screamed, because it had been a Brown Recluse, attracting the attention of the zombie that had been nearby. Although Garth was able to kill the zombie by throwing it into a rock, Princess got bitten on then neck by it, and her neck got torn open because Garth had pulled the zombie away from Princess without realizing it until afterward. They could think Eve, for forcing them to learn about healing as a substitute for a much worse punishment of having to spend two days with the vegetarians for "acting like children" during a hunt, almost costing one of the wolves his life, for Princess still being alive now. But, because she had been bitten by one of the zombies, Princess only had until nightfall before she turned. As expected, Princess was showing side effects from her bite, as she had since her injury, starting with light pain in her neck, brown-purple discoloration of the area around the injury, and the wound had immediately started clotting, thankfully, but unknown to the others. Now, about eight hours since her initial infection, the symptoms were much worse than last night. Princess had begun experiencing numbing of her extremities and the infected area, her throat. Her fever had increased from 99-103 degrees F to 103-106 degrees F, as well as an increase of dementia (and a loss of her muscular coordination). According to Eve, "Dementia referred to a serious loss of global cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person−in this case, a previously unimpaired wolf−beyond what might be expected from normal aging. It may be static, the result of a unique global brain injury, or progressive, resulting in long-term decline due _to damage or disease in the body_." Those last seven words from Eve's definition of−"to damage or disease in the body"−were the keywords as to why Princess had severe dementia. Damage to her body? Yes. She had her throat torn out, for crying out loud! Disease in the body? Yes. She had a virus, that would turn her into a zombie in twelve hours, in her system! Also according to Eve, "originally meaning 'madness', from de-'without' plus ment, the root of mens - 'mind'." Basically, it meant that Princess was losing her memory slowly, and she would go mad before her death.

Princess was suffering from a pain like none which she had never suffered before. But since her body was numb, she could not do anything about the pain. And since she could not talk or scream because of the damage to her vocal chords, there was no way for her to tell the others that she wanted to be moved to a more comfortable position. Her body was going through hell and she had no way to tell the others to make her feel better, by moving her or whatever. Not only would Princess go mad before her death, her death was unavoidable because that bite from that zombie wolf had infected her with an incurable virus that would turn her into one of them. And she only had twelve hours, or less, of life left until she joined the ranks of the undead. Princess felt so hot as she just laid there suffering due to the numbing of her extremities and her loss of muscular coordination. That made it risky for her to move, but she was so numb that she couldn't get herself to move without hurting. And it was not the kind of hot that wolves used to describe her looks, as much as she wished it was instead. Princess was burning up from the 106 degree F fever that she had.

The four wolves who saved her life the previous night could not bear to see Princess, a wolf who they all knew for a long time, and who Runt married even though she was a generation older than he was, like this. Princess and Runt already lost their three children to the zombies, and now he would lose is mate, the first and only wolf who he ever loved, in half a day. They were all weeping over the dying body of Princess because of all the close connections they had with her. Runt was her mate and the first wolf to give her puppies. Princess not only saved Runt's life from the rogues during the first battle the Jasper wolves had with them but also the life of Garth, too, when Princess and Garth had not yet known who the other was yet. With his ankle sprained from a tree root, Garth had a Banff rouge wolf after him, ready to slit his throat open. Princess had not wanted to save Garth, only caring about Runt, until the then puppy told her that Garth was his uncle. That changed things for Princess entirely, and she went after the wolf attacking Garth, landing on its back, breaking it in the process, also killing the wolf too. She helped Garth out of the root and back to his pack by carrying him there on her back. Princess always had been a strong wolf, and carrying injured wolves was something she had done multiple times before. Banff was a place where injuries were more common than anything, mostly because of blood sports or the wolves' own stupidity. It had been a grueling walk to get Garth back to them, but a then puppy Runt had been there, and he was motivating enough to get Princess there. That was the moment Kate had asked Princes to come with them for all she had done for them, and when she had refused. Claudette and Stinky respected Princess for saving the lives of Garth and Runt then, and so did Runt.

To see her dying so slowly, and suffering a numbness that was so bad that it caused Princess extreme pain. They knew she was in pain, and it upset them greatly to know that she could not instruct them in how to make her feel more comfortable all because her throat had been torn open. All they could do was watch her suffer because their actions could cause her to suffer more. Only Princess could know what position would be comfortable, but there was no way for that to be known. She could not speak, and she could not move other to show them. And the grunts, whines, whimpers and other noises that Princess used to communicate with them, that they somehow understand, were more like the moans of the zombies, and so Princess had stopped all together to keep from scaring Claudette.

Runt laid down over the still body of his mate, with his front legs over her. He started to cry. The last eight hours had been hell for him, and the next twelve would be so much worse as time went by. It killed Runt on the inside to see her like this, and there was nothing anyone could do to save her from becoming one of the zombies. In every way, Princess was the strongest wolf Runt had ever known, so it was impossible for him to gasp, seeing her like this. To see her on the verge of death. Runt now knew how his older sister felt after witnessing the death of Fleet.

* * *

Three hours later, Princess's conditioned worsened noticeably. The first change of the three happened at the first of those three hours. It was when Princess's body going numb overall, rather than just her extremities. This numbing of her whole body made the already unbearable pain so much worse. She could not even move her body because of the numbness, not even simple tasks like blinking her eyes or twitching her ears. But yet Princess could still feel all of the pain that resulted from the infection destroying her body on the inside. The dementia that came from the infection did not help any either. There was one reason being numb made her pain so much worse: she could not move, or be moved by the others because of their fear of hurting her worse.

None of the five wolves realized it, but all this numbness and pain came from a source that normally only affected corpses: R_igor mortis_. _Rigor mortis_ is one of the recognizable signs of death, according to Eve, caused by chemical changes in the muscles after death, causing the limbs of the corpse to become stiff and difficult to move or manipulate. It commences after about three to four hours, reaches maximum stiffness after twelve hours, and gradually dissipates from approximately twenty hours after death. In this case, it was after her being infected by the zombie virus that caused her _rigor mortis_, because it destroyed her body in such a way that it was as if she was dead, even though her life had not yet expired. All Princess could do was cry and scream from the pain, and that only it made it so much worse, but yet it was so bad that she could not help but scream. Princess got stiff with every minute going by that she could not bring herself to move.

Hour eleven of Princess's infection definitely brought on the worst symptom up to now. They others did not know it, obviously, but Princess could feel her heart rate slowing down so slowly that it was scary. A slowing heart rate was the first sign that her body was starting to shut down. It meant that she was starting the process of death. Somehow, Princess managed to speak the words and let them all now, but it caused her to vomit up blood, and cough in a raspy voice. Runt could not take anymore and he walked away to cry alone. He could not even bring himself to howl for Princess, because it would bring back all those memories of when they howled together in their cave or at The Howling Rock.

But Runt would be there, again, for his dying, suffering, mate when she went into a coma sixteen hours after her initial infection, five hours after her heart rate slowed. Princess was not moving in any way other than her breast rising and falling between breaths. The time between each of her labored breaths was so great that Garth, Claudette, Stinky and Runt all thought that each was going to be the last breath that Princess breathed. Every time Princess did breath, the four healthy wolves let out signs of relief. But it did not change the unavoidable truth that Princess's body was slowly shutting down, and that she would be dead by sunset. If not, then she would die when it was night.

Runt stared at Princess. "I would gladly trade places with her," he said glumly. "She doesn't deserve to suffer like this..."

"Neither do you, Runt," Claudette said. "No one does. I would not wish this upon my worst enemy."

"You're right, but I would gladly die for Princess if it meant she didn't..." Runt started crying again, just after he had stopped only minutes ago. Runt lowered his head to Princess's ear. He lifted her ear up and whispered into it: "I love you..." But she did not feel him lift her ear or hear what he whispered into her ear, due to being in a coma. Runt kissed Princess on her cheek, and closed his eyes. Runt could still see Princess even with his eyes closed. It was like a day dream. Runt did not see Princess on her death bed but rather he saw Princess and himself howling together in their cave. Runt did not want to ever open his eyes, and come out of this pleasant vision, but obviously he had to eventually. So Runt just opened his eyes now, hoping to see his vision as a reality, but Princess was still laying in that very spot on the moss blankets, still in a coma.

Four hours later, the sun was setting, in the sky, with Princess's life coming to an end, twenty hours after she was first infected. Princess's heart had just stopped beating and there was no activity left in her brain. These two factors meant that Princess's life had official come to an end. She was not breathing anymore; her breast ceased to rise and fall. There wasn't that rare twitching of her ears or feet anymore, or the blinking of her eyes. There was not a single sign of life left in the Beta she-wolf. Garth, Claudette and her two brothers could sense that Princess had slipped away, leaving this hellish world behind.

Runt went insane. Garth and his siblings had a difficult time prying Runt from the, for now, lifeless body of his mate. Runt screamed and cursed them as they drug him away from Princess. Garth had to explain that Runt could not mourn his mate so close to her body; they did not have a clue as to when she would turn. This gave the wolves no choice but to stay awake until it happened. They would not sleep until Princess turned and they had destroyed her. The time of Princess's turning seemed to arrive three hours later, which was twenty-three hours since her initial infection.

Would could have ever predicted that the words "I love you" would have ever been the last words that a wolf with a temper like Princess would utter? Not even said to her own mate but her mate's uncle - Garth. Her mate who she just left a widower. Now, the four wolves were watching helplessly as the familiar happened, and they could not bring themselves to execute her by means of a rock crushing her skull, by destroying her brain. Not one of them could bring themselves to do it. Not even Garth, the strongest-willed of the four wolves who were still alive. They just sat there, close to each other, knowing what to expect because they had been there when it happened to Hutch. Only Princess had also been witness to that event and not the turning wolf. Princess was having a seizure, vomiting up a white froth like that attributed to rabid wolves and blood. So much blood!

_So much bl..._thought Stinky. But it made him sick just to think about how much blood Princess was involuntarily regurgitating. Princess's eyes rolled back into her head, and when they rolled back to their normal position, her irises and her pupils were a dull yellow. The white dots that had been in her pupils were gone. She did something that they had not expected at all, but it would haunt them for their rest of their lives. Princess let out a hellish scream of pain, even though she was already dead, the wolves thought anyway, and that was it. Princess's body went still again.

Garth suddenly felt weak in the knees. He fell to her level, forgetting how he had warned Runt not to get to close to her body because of the threat she posed. "I'm sorry, Princess," he whispered into the same ear that Runt had whispered "I love you" in. In tears, Garth closed her Princess's eyes with his right front paw. Garth turned his back toward a still lifeless Princess, to address the young wolves who were his responsibility now. "She's gone now. I'm sorry to say this, all of it, Runt, but we all know what must be...must be done for our own safety."

Garth had no idea why, but the adolescent wolf siblings were now holding each other. At least the brothers were. Claudette was underneath her brothers, as if she was seeking protection from some sort of unseen danger. She did not care that her brothers were setting on her, with their tails hanging off either side of her. (Claudette was a wide wolf, like her grandmother Eve, especially in her head and hips, and both of her brothers could sit on her with ease.) What was going on behind their uncle was much worse than having to worry about having one of her brothers' sitting on her head! Garth seemed to be unaware of what they were staring at, it seemed to the young wolves, but they were all too frightened to warn Garth about it. They had no time to warn him even if they had the mental stability to do so. They were frozen with terror. Princess had just turned into a zombie silently and had started crawling toward Garth. All of that just after Garth turned around to address his niece and nephews. Before any of them had a chance to scream, Princess bit Garth on his left hind leg, taking off that foot as well.

Claudette screamed her uncle's name as Garth fell flat on his back, his head in the direction of the zombie. Garth saw an upside-down view of Princess crawling on her belly toward him. Her mouth was wide open, she was moaning, and he could see into her mouth and down her gullet. Garth screamed, but it was too late for him to move. What happened next caused the two brothers to scream as their sister had and then they froze. It also provoked Claudette to slip out from underneath their brothers and run away, but she stopped when she saw that her brothers stuck around, even after they landed hard on their butts on the granite that made up the ground. Princess bit down on Garth's head, crushing his skull like it was nothing more than an egg. His brain and blood flowed into Princess's mouth and onto the ground. Most of it went down Princess's gullet, and she swallowed the gore that belonged to her brother-in-law. Princess stood up, moaning. Claudette was screaming because of the moaning and what she witnessed, and begging for her brothers to run, but they were both frozen with tear after watching their uncle die. Princess went for them next. It all happened so quickly. Runt was left bleeding out from a bite to his throat before Princess turned on Stinky when he jumped on her back. Princess threw him off with no effort, and she torn his soft belly open with her razor-sharp claws. Princess tore out his entrails and ate them up quickly. Stinky died immediately, as soon as his entrails had been torn out of his lower belly. His body went limp as his head collapsed in a pool of blood that flowed from his mouth. Stinky's eyes were still open.

Runt was gasping for breaths that rarely came due to the damage dealt to his windpipe, as he blood out. Princess ignored her dying mate for Claudette, going by him as he begged for his older sister to run, just to leave him and Stinky behind. But Runt's life expired before his now undead mate reached Claudette.

"Princess! Please stop!" screamed Claudette, holding a massive rock over her head with her front paws. She holding it securely, so it would not crush her own skull, ready to end the life of her sister-in-law, if she was left with no other choice. And it looked like Claudette was. "I beg you! You're a zombie and you killed my brothers and uncle, but I don't want to do this! Please, just stop!" Her words did not mean anything to Princess anymore, as a zombie, and she kept going. Claudette threw the rock, but she missed and it flew through the tall grass behind Princess. Claudette stared into the blank expression of Princess, and she went into a stunned state as had her brothers. Princess continued shambling nearer to Claudette, moaning incoherently all the way.

The grass shook seconds after the zombie reached Claudette. Claudette's screams could be heard from a good distance away from the field, echoing. "Princess! No! No! No! Agh-" There was a gag, then the sickening sound of flesh tearing, one last scream, and then nothing but an eerie silence.


	21. Eve's Mistake

**Chapter Twenty**

**Eve's Mistake**

Eve awoke the same night that Princess reanimated as a zombie, and took the lives of Garth and her grandpups (something which all the wolves in the gas station were unaware of), with a bad feeling that she could not shake. Eve's bad feeling had something to do with the wolves who just lost their lives, but she did not know what it is. Eve feared that her bad feeling had something to do with the zombies either killing all four of them or that one of them got infected by a zombie and he or she killed the rest of the group. This had all started with a nightmare about the five wolves Princess, Garth, Claudette, Stinky and Runt. In that nightmare, Eve saw the five wolves in the tall grass. Princess had a large gash in her throat, covered by moss that looked like something Eve would do for injuries. Eve had known that Princess had been injured by one of the zombies. The nightmare ended when Princess reanimated as a zombie and brutally killed the wolves who had saved her life from bleeding out. Eve did not know if she should tell Kate, Lilly and Humphrey about this nightmare or not. When she woke up screaming, and her daughters and son-in-law surrounded her, Eve told her that it was just a nightmare, and that nothing happened in it that they needed to worry about. They went back to sleep, worrying about her. Eve was unaware of how accurate her dream was to what had actually taken place in that field just ten minutes ago.

The sun was not yet in the sky and the others would not be awake until it was. Currently, it was around midnight and Eve was tired, but too terrified by what she had dreamed about to want to go back to sleep. She knew that she could pass out eventually and go back to sleep, but Eve would not go back to sleep voluntarily. Eve was worried that she would have a nightmare about Kate, Lilly or Humphrey losing their lives. Because of that, too, sleep was out of the question. Eve thought that she should check out the upstairs of the gas station while she was awake. With all of the downstairs already explored, they were planning to explore the top floor tomorrow morning. Eve could save the children some effort and time by doing it now, while she was wide awake. Only Kate and Lilly had been upstairs and that was very briefly on their first day in the gas station, and only to check for zombies. Nothing else. Since all of the doors upstairs were closed, the sisters has assumed that there couldn't be any zombies up there or they would have seen them. It was just a hallway when first going upstairs, with a few rooms behind closed doors, and one that was barricaded with some small furniture and wooden planks nailed up on the door, at the end of the corridor. Kate and Lilly had assumed that there was nothing to worry about, nothing important, behind that door since it was barricaded. Humphrey and Eve had agreed with the sisters, and nothing else was said about that room.

Eve went up the stairs. It was an easy task because the door had been open when they got there, and so they just kept the door open to make it easier on them. If things went to hell and zombies broke into the downstairs, then there was the upstairs that would keep them safe. The wolves would be able to easily shut the door and be safe doing it because the door was behind a desk with only one way to get around it, and that was through a door that was not left open. The wolves always jumped over the desk when they needed to get around it, and that was what Eve had done to get to the stairs.

The upstairs of the gas station was so much different in comparison to the downstairs. To Eve, this floor was more how she would have pictured a house that humans lived in rather than a gas station, after how Kate, Humphrey and their children had described it to her after returning to Jasper after the battle in Banff. (Not that any of the wolves from Jasper or Banff knew anything about the interior of a house, having never been in one.) Maybe it would be more comfortable to sleep up here, if they slept in the rooms. Eve had already checked out the rooms that were unlocked, and there was enough bedrooms up here to give each of them their own room if they wanted it. Obviously Kate and Humphrey would not let the other sleep alone, and Lilly didn't have Garth to be with her, so Eve would stay with Lilly so her daughter would not be alone at night. Lilly was getting more jittery without having Garth around, more so because she was pregnant with his pups.

Beyond having a better place to sleep, in the beds, than on the hard wood floor of the downstairs, the upstairs was naturally safer. If they were upstairs, the zombies would not know that anyone was up there so long as they were quiet, and nothing would get upstairs so long as they kept the doors to the stairs and the top floor closed. Any zombies that break into the gas station would not stick around if there was nothing for them to consume. Obviously, anyone coming here to look for survivors would shout for them, but the wolves would have to be cautious in their approach of rescuers or they could be killed by a bullet to the head, if it was hunters, police officers, soldiers or any other person who would have a gun on him or her.

Although that door at the end of the corridor was heavily barricaded, curiosity was getting the better of the elder wolf. Eve desperately wanted to know what was behind that door. It had to be something important, or something that Max, the deceased owner of the gas station, did not want to be found. Maybe it was just a room filled with junk that did not mean anything, or just the opposite entirely, and Max did not want anyone to get in there and take it, especially if it had been valuable to him in life. To get through this barricade would not be easy for a wolf who did not have thumbs, meaning that using tools would be out of the question even if she knew anything about using a hammer or crowbar, or whatever would be better for the task. It would also be loud, but Eve would try to make opening the door as easy, and more importantly quiet, as possibly. Eve did not want the children to wake up and be frightened by a sudden loud noise. After everything they had been through lately, they did not need any more scaring, even if it was nothing dangerous.

Eve was a wolf with an eye for detail, especially when it came to her task, before the outbreak, as the healer of her pack. She always made sure that she checked for the most simple solutions to a problem. (She did not want to make any noise, but that would not be simple, given her observation of this door.) In this case, Eve was checking the rusty brass doorknob to see if it still worked. Standing on her hind legs, she pushed down on the doorknob with her front paws. The door swung open unexpectedly and Eve almost fell on her face as a result. The door opened wide enough for Eve to squeeze through and she was a large wolf at the hips and head; Eve was where Claudette got her hips and the size of her head. Claudette resembled Eve, her grandmother, more than her own mother, Kate, except in the fact that Claudette's curves came from Kate. Eve squeezed through the door that was open, going under the chair that was blocking it. It was mostly cardboard boxes and junk in this room. Some of the boxes were crushed, with nothing in them. Everything in this room was covered in dust. It made Eve's allergies kick in, and made her feel dirty. Eve did not like dust and dirt. She used to go into screaming rants whenever Kate, Lilly or Winston would forgot about cleaning up their cave when it was their turn to do such, when Kate and Lilly had lived with them. So far, this room had nothing worth showing Kate, Lilly and Humphrey.

However, there was some dry blood on the floor, but it was old, and blood was not something that should be shown to them with all this going on. It would make them more paranoid about anything dangerous that could be in the area than they already were. Eve sighed and looked around. This dust was bugging her. But Eve forgot about the dust when she heard something get knocked over not far from where she was currently. There was also slow, sloppy footsteps. Eve's ears pricked up immediately. But there was another noise even more familiar than all these sounds. Even more frightening. Eve could have assumed it was just the wind blowing, which would make since because it was mid fall, around Halloween for humans, but she knew better than that after everything they had gone through. Eve would not let her guard down one tiny bit. She clenched her teeth and started back away. Moaning now, after all that had happened in the past several days, meant zombies likely than the wind blowing. And this was louder than any wind Eve had ever heard before, as long as she had lived. And then, letting one's guard down now meant death. Or at least it could if you were not so lucky. Eve went all around the room and found something that could be an explanation for the moaning she heard. There was a hole in the wall that wind was blowing through. It blew Eve's short mane back, and she cursed the wind, then moved in. But she was still relieved that it could have just been the wind blowing. She sighed, but her relief was short-lived. She heard moaning that was nearby and then slow, sloppy footsteps coming toward her from just around a large, wooden crate. It was near the only door. A loud moan told Eve that it was not the wind she had heard originally but a zombie. It came into view, and she could see it clearly from where she was.

Eve screamed, then ran to the door. She reached it just as the zombie wolf did. It snapped at her shoulder when she ran by it. When Eve slipped through the door, her butt got stuck in the door because it had closed slightly. She felt the zombie biting at her ankle, but Eve did not know if it had actually bit her or not. She was moving too fast to have known or not. She popped through the door seconds later and landed flat on her belly on the floor. The door slammed shut as a result and all the items stacked in front of it crashed to the floor, landing on top of Eve. She laid there for a while, but when she felt blood flowing from her ankle, she jumped up, throwing the items in all directions with another crash. Eve screamed again and she took off running, trailing the blood behind her. She did not know yet what caused the injury, but she was praying that it had been caught on a splinter of wood when the chair had fallen on top of her and the leg broke. But she couldn't assume that it was, because she had felt the pain when her butt was stuck in the door. Then again, it could have been the wooden crate right by the door. Eve had seen a rusty nail sticking out of. A look back at her ankle answered all questions. It was not a scratch that would have been caused by a nail or wood splinter. She stopped, and a closer look told her that it was a bite from a wolf. Eve's heart sank and she began to cry. For the third time within a time period less than a minute, Eve screamed yet again. And it was a scream so loud that it echoed down the stairs.

* * *

Kate, Lilly and Humphrey heard it all. The door slamming, the barricade made from furniture falling apart, and all of Eve's screaming, specifically the most recent one because it had echoed down the stairs. They all got up as fast as they could and ran to the desk, which they jumped over all at once. They were met by Eve running down the stairs, trailing blood behind her. She ran into Humphrey and landed on top of him, but quickly, she got up and began sputtering out words frantically, pointing at the injury on her foot. She was screaming and crying. The younger wolves had never seen Eve crying or screaming like this before. Eve was uncontrollable, and Kate had to scream at her mother to calm down. Kate had never screamed at her mother before until now, but it got the job done, and thankfully her mother understand.

Everything had happened so fast that Kate, Lilly and Humphrey did not see all of Eve's injuries until now. Not even Eve had realized the other two injuries until Lilly had pointed them out, screaming. Lilly ran to her sister, and pulled Kate's front legs around her. Kate saw what Lilly had seen now, and so did Humphrey. Kate began to weep into Lilly's shoulder, and Lilly did the same, as Humphrey fell to his belly on the ground, repeatedly saying "No..." with disbelief. How could this had happened to their mother so suddenly? There was not only a bite on her foot, something they could have taken care of to prevent Eve from infection, because they was a large knife on the other desk, where a cashier would go, but there was also a bite of flesh taken out of her shoulder. The third, the largest, was taken out of her throat. All of the injuries were bleeding heavily.

Eve fell to the ground now, already week from blood loss. She opened her mouth. Not only words came out of her mouth but also blood. A lot of blood. "Zombie...wolf...in locked...room!" she sputtered out. "I'm...dying!"

"NO!" cried Kate and Lilly in unison. "No...mother..." Kate said. Tears flowed from all three of the wolves' eyes were leaking tears. But they knew that, as much as they wanted to not believe it, that Eve was right. A bite from a zombie was a death sentence. There was no curing a wound that was not on a limb, and even that was risking: it was severing the bitten limb. Anything else, there was nothing to be done about the bite or scratch. Nothing at all. Even the smallest prick from a tooth of a zombie wolf meant certain infection. It was too easy to get infected by one of them. Swallowing the smallest amount of blood could do it, whether there were wounds on the inside of one's body or not. If seeing their mother like this was not bad enough, then seeing Eve reanimate as a zombie would be the absolute worst thing that they would be forced to witness, except for maybe watching a mate or son or daughter die. It was unimaginable, no matter who they would bear witness to reanimate as a zombie. They had already lost both of their fathers, Winston and Tony, to this virus, and now they were losing Eve. She was slipping away slowly. "Kill...me..." she cried weekly.

"What?!" the three screamed together.

"No..." gasped Lilly.

"I don't want to turn into one of them!" Even suddenly sounded so much stronger, but it did not last long. "KILL ME!" Eve lost her voice, so she weakly motioned to the knife on the shelf with her tail. Eve begged them to end her suffering until Kate complied to do so, and the other two did not argue the matter. Lilly and Humphrey did not want to see Eve reanimate as much as Kate did not want to.

Kate was the one who retrieved the kitchen knife from the shelf. It was a difficult task, carrying the knife in her front right paw, and walking back to her mouth on three feet. All while carrying the knife and not losing her grip, or letting her leg that was up in the air fall to the floor. But when she returned to her mother and began lowering the knife to Eve's skull, Kate began to hesitate. Her arm, her whole body, was shaking, and she dropped the knife once. Eve screamed at her to do it and get it over with, so Kate picked up the knife, but again, she hesitated. Kate never would have thought that she would have to kill her own mother for any reason, let alone a mercy killing to prevent her own mother from becoming a zombie. A zombie was something Kate never would have thought was real until this all began. Kate, Lilly and Humphrey closed their eyes. Kate drove the blade of the kitchen knife into her mother's skull. There was a brief gasp, and then a thud as Eve's body went limp in the middle of the gas station. Kate pulled the knife out of her mother's skull slowly and she threw it in the direction of the door before any of the wolves opened their eyes. The knife was stuck in the door about an inch, and Eve was dead, with a hole from the knife dead center between her eyes.

The three wolves howled mournfully over the body of Eve for an hour. They did not sleep peacefully that night, but at least Eve would not reanimate...


	22. Leaving the Gas Station

9

**Chapter Twenty-One**

**Leaving the Gas Station**

It was the morning after Eve's death when Kate awoke screaming and crying like a little wolf and not an adult. Kate was alone in one of the bedrooms upstairs that her late mother had found shortly before her death, because she had requested to Lilly and Humphrey that she be left alone for a while, to mourn their mother. Lilly and Humphrey had left the door open, also at Kate's request, but the downstairs door, and the door to get behind the desk, were both shut. For that reason, it did not matter as much if the bedroom doors were closed or not. What would be the point? Privacy? Especially after last night, everything that had happened recently was making Kate not think about things such as getting pregnant again, at least for as long as this zombie outbreak was going on. It would not be safe for a pregnant wolf in this world, out in the open, and it would be even less safe for newborns. There would not be any kind of mating she would take part in until this came to an end, when every zombie was dead.

Eve was still on the mind of Kate. Her mother had gone upstairs to only explore, which was when she had discovered by the bedrooms, but Eve got bit by a zombie wolf trapped in the barricaded room at the end of the corridor (which the wolves had re-barricaded much than it had been originally). The zombie that caused Eve's death would never get out. And that was for the best, for that zombie's sake, not the wolves. If it got out, Kate would kill the fucker for killing her mother. Kate had been the one who had to end Eve's suffering with a large kitchen knife. Since the burial of her own mother, outside the gas station, Kate was going through a state of depression. Just like Claws had been after the death of Janice, and Humphrey had been after the deaths of Salty, Shakey and Mooch. If there was anything worse than three young wolves watching their mother's life slipping away, and her suffering, it was what Eve had wanted Kate, the oldest of the younger wolves, to do, had forced her to do. That had been to kill her, with the large kitchen knife that had been left laying by the cash register, to end Eve's suffering and to prevent her from reanimating as a zombie.

Up to the death of their mother, the wolves' plan had been to leave the gas station on this day, to return to the Western Territory of Jasper Park, so that all four of them−Kate, Lilly, Humphrey and_ Eve_−could finally be reunited with Princess, Garth, Claudette, Runt and Stinky. But now, Eve was dead and six feet under, and she would never see her grandpups again, or her son-in-law or daughter-in-law. None of them would see her again, either. It was Eve's death that had made the wolves all but forget that they had to go find what was left of their family. Their motivation to do such had almost died when Eve lost her life. But if there was any chance, any chance at all, of being reunited with what little remnants of their family there could be out there, the three would take that chance for Eve. She would want them to find the rest, even if she would not be there with them.

Kate was panting rapidly without even realizing it, and she was in a cold sweat, all because of a nightmare she just woke up from. It was a nightmare about her now deceased mother Eve, and what Kate had been forced by her own mother to do to her. Kate would never forget such a terrible night like last night as long as she lived, if that was for much longer, the way things were going for them! Who could ever forget having to kill her own mother? No one who actually had a heart could. The beds sheets and the mattress were soaking wet with Kate's sweat in the spot where she was laying. Kate may have fallen asleep on her belly in the center of the bed last night, but now she had just woke up on her back for some odd reason, all wet from sweating. She was so cold, but normally sweating resulted from being hot, and it was not all that hot in here, since it was mid autumn outside, the last day of October to be specific. Kate looked down, and realized that she had wet the bed. It must have been a bad nightmare, but Kate could hardly remember exactly what had taken place in it, except for the parts about Eve. There may have been something had happening to Princess, Garth and her pups, but she could not remember at all. It was so real that it had scared her into waking up.

Having heard Kate's screaming and crying from the bed room right next to the one Kate was alone in, Lilly and Humphrey ran into the bedroom of Kate. They stopped in their tracks and their jaws hit the floor. To see a wolf like Kate who was normally so beautiful in a state like this was shocking. One of the most shocking things Lilly and Humphrey had seen, of things unrelated to zombies anyway. To see Kate with her fur all wet and matted from sweat and her mane an unkempt mess was a sight that was hard to look at. Lilly and Humphrey begged Kate to just get off the bed and go use that shower, since she knew how to work one from spying on one of the park rangers when he had been trying to fix the one in their cabin when it had broke down, when they were hardly adolescent wolves. It was when Kate was still an Omega before she had gone to Alpha school for that winter.

Kate finally agreed, and she returned seven minutes later, looking like a new wolf. Her coat (of fur) was its bright, shiny orange hue again, and, overall, Kate appeared to have groomed herself in the shower. Her mate was no longer unkempt with random individual hairs sticking up in all directions. This was the Kate who the wolves knew, and not the one they had seen about seven minutes earlier. Beautiful, with a shiny coat of fur, her tail bushy, and her mane waving as she walked as if there was a gust of wind, rather than all of the hairs in her mane and tail sticking up like thin needles. Humphrey howled flirtatiously at Kate, who brushed her tail under his chin just as flirtatiously as she walked by him to talk to Lilly. Humphrey fell flat on his belly, and watched Kate's hips move, as if in a trance, as she walked away, smiling. But that was about as light hearted as things would get. Humphrey stood up when Kate began to speak.

Nothing could change the fact that Eve was gone, and that they were all because of her death, but at least Kate seemed to be feeling a little better than she was.

"Lilly, Humphrey," said Kate, in a serious voice. "We must find Princess, Garth and the children for mother's sake. She brought up the idea of leaving this gas station to find them, and we must do it for her. If we don't, we'll have failed our mother by not honoring the last thing she wanted us to do before her death. We're leaving soon." Princess, Garth and the daughter and son of Kate and Humphrey were still alive, possibly in the grass fields in the Western Territory, as far as they knew. The truth that they did not know was that the wolves whom they were leaving the safety of the gas station to find had all died about twelve hours earlier, and one of them was a zombie−Princess. If they took into account the time they spent sleeping at night, and taking breaks during the morning hours so they would not wear themselves out before night, it would likely take them no more than a day-and-a-half to reach the field in the Western territory of Jasper. They were praying for a peaceful journey that threw no major delays at them other than what was to be expected−breaks to rest their feet on the way and sleeping at night in trees. Meaning that they hoped one thing would _not_ happen: no attacks by the zombie wolves that would slow them down.

Kate, Lilly and Humphrey all ate their fill of meat from the freezer, and each filled up carry pouches that the humans called "satchels", which were sometimes used to carry things when riding a horse, if the wolves remembered right from all the eavesdropping they did on humans, as full as they could with food for the journey. Obviously they would not need to pack water because they would be crossing the train tracks over a large freshwater river with very clean water, and there was a river that stressed from the end of the train tracks all the way back to Jasper. Maybe it would be faster if they just let themselves float down the river all the way to Jasper, but then again, their legs and undersides would all be pruned up from the water if they did. It would be uncomfortable, to say the least, to walk.

Before leaving the gas property of the gas station, the three wolves gathered one last time at the grave of Eve to say their last goodbyes to here, until they returned. There were real flowers being sold in the gas station, and each of them left several flowers on the grave before leaving. The gas station was only several yards from the train tracks that went over the massive river as if it was a bridge. And it was just that−a bridge−that they was using the train tracks as once again. Using the tracks a bridge was how the then group of four wolves had got across the river to the gas station the first now. Now, it was how they were leaving the area as a group of three wolves, and not four wolves, but hopefully would return to a group of eight wolves...that Princess, Garth, Claudette, Runt and Stinky−maybe even Scar, who would make it nine−make it back to the gas station with these three.

It was a heavy risk that the three wolves, unknowingly whom were all that was left of their entire family, and maybe even the all that was left of the Easter and Western Packs if Scar was dead, or worse, reanimated as a zombie. They did not know that they could be all that was left of their entire pack, maybe even the whole valley if the Northern and Southern Packs were affected by this outbreak as well. They did not know that the three of them were the only hope for their pack not dying out, by having new generations of wolves. Lilly would already be ready to supply a new pack with its first puppies, being pregnant with the pups of a deceased Garth, whom she did not even know was laying headless in their old home now. But Kate would have to mate, again, with Humphrey to help with the repopulation of Jasper, whether the wolves in the grass were dead or not, when this was all over. If it did ever come to an end, that is.

The risk of traveling along this train track could be the extremely small chance of a random train coming in their direction. If that did happen, as unlikely as it was, even though anything was possible, Kate, Lilly and Humphrey would have no choice but to jump off the tracks and swim to the shore if they did not want to be splattered all over the tracks by a train. Usually doing what they were doing now would be a foolish, even suicidal, thing to do, but the wolves were positive that there would be no trains running in the area now. If that wolf in the back room of the upstairs of the gas station, the zombie bit Eve, had got the owner of the gas station, Max, as well, then it was likely that other random zombie wolves could have killed any train conductors in the area. Any human in this area had to be dead, but deaths in the city were surely low to zero, if any zombies had wandered into the city. The only way, for sure, a wolf could have gotten to the city was if was a living wolf, who was wounded by a zombie, somehow made it that far. But, obviously, any wolf, living or zombie, that wandered into a city would be shot dead before it had a chance to reanimate or do any harm, if it was a zombie. That was how Humphrey had lost his parents before he was brought to Jasper by Western wolves, now deceased from old age, who had heard about an orphaned pup wandering in the wild with no parents or other wolves with him.

Kate, Lilly and Humphrey were running alongside each other along the train tracks as fast as they could. It was next to impossible that they would encounter a train coming toward them, but they wanted to get off the tracks as soon as possible. Anything could happen, no matter how unlikely it seemed. For all they knew, there could be a train on its way just now, bring people to the city after a vacation in the wilderness, after seeing no animals, unaware of why saw nothing but animals ate to the bone, most likely, Kate thought. Even a train carrying survivors of a zombie wolf attack that took the lives of humans, trying to escape the valley. For that reason, they would not dare to sleep on the tracks. It was too dangerous.

The end of the train tracks came into view of the wolves just over half an hour later, when they were two yards from the end, but there was a light in the distance, and a horn blaring loudly. The wolves' ears dropped down the back of their manes, and their hearts sank.

"Train!' screamed Lilly. "Go off the edges! Quickly!" Kate and Humphrey jumped off the same side of the track, but Lilly went for the other side, the side which she was closest. Only she did not fall to the water like her sister and brother-in-law, but her bushy tail got caught on a spike that held the tracks together. It was stuck through her tail, almost hitting the flesh of her tail. Lilly sighed with relief that it had just gone through her fur, but she was hanging off the edge by her tail with a train coming toward her!

Kate and Humphrey were floating in the water, with Kate now setting on the head of Humphrey, her legs dangling over. She had not landed on his head, but climbed up him to get a better view of the area. That was when she had seen Lilly hanging from the tracks. She screamed Lilly's name and it echoed through the valley. Lilly did not hear her sister screaming because Kate's voice was drowned out by the noise the train was making. Kate and Humphrey watched with terror as the train ran over Lilly's tail, spraying blood on the side and front of the massive vehicle, and then Lilly's seemingly lifeless body falling down to the water below. There was a splash that they could not hear over the train, but both Kate and Humphrey began swimming over to the spot where they had seen Lilly fall. They knew the area because there was blood in the water. It dripped from the tracks above down into the water, too, and onto the heads of Kate and Humphrey.

"LILLY!" Kate screamed, but there was no response. She turned to her mate. "Humphrey, you stay here. I'm going under to find Lilly. She can't swim if she goes under water! If she happens to come to you, stay with her, and wait for me to resurface." Humphrey nodded, and watched Kate dive under the water. Her tail was the last thing to go. Holding her breath as best she could, Kate swam all around the river looking for her sister. It was darker the deeper Kate swam, but Lilly had snow white fur, so she would see her..._hopefully_, thought Kate.

Kate resurfaced fifteen minutes later, alone, hoping to find Lilly with Humphrey, but she didn't. Kate began weeping large tears. "I...I didn't find her..." she cried. "...I lost my father, my mother, and now my sister...will you be next, Humphrey...?"

Humphrey wrapped his arms around Kate, and she buried her face in the fur on his chest. "I'm sorry Kate," he said. "I wish there was something we could do..." He looked around, hoping to see Lilly swimming on the surface toward them, but he didn't. Nor did Kate, when she could bring herself to do such. And it was hard for her to look for her sister whom had to be dead. In addition to not being able to swim, except for on the surface, it was hard to imagine Lilly survive a fall from such a high place to begin with. An impact from that high up into water would kill a wolf who had a small stature like Lilly. Lilly was a long wolf, but she was skinny compared to Kate and Humphrey. The impact could have broken her rips, her legs, her neck, even her back.

Kate and Humphrey would go on constantly diving under the water in turns for the next hour-and-a-half in, hoping to find Lilly, but they didn't, and gave up as much as they did not want to. Lilly was dead. There was no denying that. Floating in the water, the wolves began howling not at the moon but the sun since it was broad daylight. They were mournful howls for Lilly. But when their howls came to an end, they heard splashing and gasping from behind them, and turned around to an unexpected sight. Unexpected after their failed search, anyway. "Lilly!" cried Kate.


	23. The Journey West

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

**The Journey West**

"Lilly!" cried Kate, who literally almost jumped at Lilly with joy as the sisters and Humphrey floated on the calm river. The unexpected train that had almost caused Lilly to lose her life was still passing over the tracks. Even from down here, the three wolves could see Lilly's blood on the train. It was very doubtful that anyone on board the train even knew about the blood, unless it got on the windows, or that anything had even happened to Lilly. The humans probably would not even learn about the blood until they reached their destination. Kate and Humphrey thought that they saw something white falling from the far side of the tracks, but they did not give one thought about what the object was. All that mattered to them now was that Lilly was alive, but she did not come out of this incident without some injury.

Aside from knowing that Lilly's body was aching from impacting the water while falling from a great height at a rapid speed, Kate noticed the blood trailing in the water from behind her little sister. "Lilly! You're bleeding! We have to get you to the shoreline to take care of it!" They did not know how badly she was injured or not, but it was not as bad as they thought. Lilly was hardly worried. She was hurting more from her fall than she was from her injuries; she only had one injury.

"Oh, it's only my tail," said Lilly. Kate and Humphrey now thought about that white object they had seen falling from the far side of the train tracks. There had been spots of red trailing behind it like rain or sparks. That red had been blood and the white object form which it came was Lilly's tail. Well...it was part of her tail, anyway. Kate and Humphrey helped Lilly swim to the shoreline, which was where they first noticed that Lilly only had half of a tail now. Kate began licking the wound with her rough tongue, even though Lilly told them not to worry about it.

"Did the train do that to you?" asked Humphrey. Lilly's response would tell them both that they had seen wrong when Lilly had been hanging from the spike on the tracks. They had thought it only stabbed through the fur of her tail, but that was not an accurate observation.

"No, thankfully," said Lilly. "When I jumped off the tracks, my tail got stuck on one of those spikes the humans use to hold the tracks together. It had gone right through not just my fur, but also the flesh and bone. It was the worst pain that I ever felt in my life until my tail tore in half because of that spike. But it is probably a good thing that my tail tore in half. That is the only reason I am here now, and not still hanging from those tracks upside down like a bat." Lilly began to rub her forehead with her paws. Impacting the water at such a rapid speed had not done just for her head and body. "Oh...my aching head...no...my aching BODY!" She raised her voice. Lilly felt like she had been body slammed by an angry Eve, that was how bad her body was hurting.

"We will not travel anymore today," said Kate, "for your sake Lilly. We will rest in the trees for the rest of the day."

"No!" screamed Lilly. "I want to see my love, Garth again, NOW! I've been away from him for far too long. Kate, if you were pregnant with Humphrey's babies, would you want to be away from him for almost an entire week, not even knowing for sure if he was dead or alive?" Kate shook her head "no" and looked at Humphrey, then back to her sister. "We will NOT sleep until it is dark just because I feel like I got hit by a truck..." She did not want to mention Eve, their deceased mother, in how bad she hurt, because it just open old wounds about Eve's death, although her death was still fresh in all their minds. "...I don't care how bad my body is hurting. I just want to see Garth again, as soon as possible, DAMN IT!" She shouted.

Kate's and Humphrey's eyes grew large. Never before had Lilly ever cursed−or shouted−before, especially not at anyone. It was shocking for Kate and Humphrey to hear even such a minor profanity come from the mouth of Lilly; the fact that she was shouting was just as shocking, because Lilly was a soft-spoken wolf with a shooting voice. It was scary to the other two wolves. Lilly was showing some of Eve's personality here. Only three wolves had ever been heard cursing around Kate and Humphrey−Princess, who cursed quit often, Eve and Claws. Just one minor profanity from the mouth of Lilly was all that it took to convince Kate and Humphrey that they would not stop traveling until sunset just because one of them was aching.

The three wolves began moving way from th shoreline in a close group. Kate and Humphrey would not have known that Lilly's body was aching when she was moving faster than both of them were. Lilly obviously cared more about being reunited with her mate, who she had not seen in so many days, than the well-being of her own body. The three wolves had a feeling of uneasiness as they crossed the landscape in broad daylight. Understandingly so, too, because they had just stepped foot across the border of the national park that was ground zero of the zombie outbreak. They were just arriving Banff. Banff was where all of this began, or at least the wolves assumed such because the first zombie wolves they had seen were the rogues from Banff. It was not easy to stay calm in this place. All three of the wolves were constantly on the alert, always expecting zombies−at least one−to attack at any moment. But the reality was that, based on the bloody events that took place in Jasper Park less than a week ago, it was unlikely that there were very many zombie rogues left in Banff. The majority of them had been present in Jasper on the day of the slaughter. There had been so many of them slaughtering everywhere they knew on that day. Traversing across Banff should be so much easier−ironically−than traversing the Eastern and Western Territories of Jasper. If Princess, Garth, Claudette, Runt and Stinky were still alive and carrying out easy lives anywhere in Jasper, then it would be a miracle, or they were just lucky wolves. The zombie wolves outnumbered the living wolves by nearly twice as many wolves _before_ the slaughter. Kate, Lilly and Humphrey could hardly begin to imagine how many of them there was after the slaughter, because of all the wolves killed who weren't entirely consumed or those who were wounded during or after it.

They had not thought about it, but the easiest part of the journey would be the one they had just completed: traversing Banff, the ground zero of the infection. At sunset, the three wolves were just crossing the over the border of Banff into the Eastern Territory of Jasper. The area the wolves was in was a good place to sleep soundly for the night. It was a safe place to sleep because of the great number of trees in the area they could chose from to call beds for the night. And it would be easy for them to climb whatever tree they chose to sleep in, no matter what species of tree it was. The youngest pup of Kate and Humphrey, Runt, had been an expert tree climber before his death that his own parents were unaware of. Runt had been as good at climbing trees as bears were. At a young age, long before the threat of zombies was even known to exist, Runt had thought his parents and siblings how to climb trees. As an adolescent, around the time Claudette was competing in The Great Wolf Games for a second time, Runt also taught Princess, Garth, Fleet, Claws and Scar, Candy and Sweets, Salty, Shakey and Mooch, Hutch, Candu and Reba and Janice how to climb trees. Every wolf who Runt had thought how to climb trees quickly became an expert at it, and they all had been willing to learn, even Claws and Scar. Princess, Claws and Scar, Hutch and Candu had once used hiding in trees as a tactic for hunting. They used it to make sneaking up on caribou much easier when it was an option to use the trees.

Now the only wolves who were still alive in the entire valley, probably all of Canada, who knew how to climb trees, were doing such right now. They had agreed on a large oak tree just on the border of the two parks that had the largest branches they had ever seen on a tree before. They had climbed up to the middle of the tree. Lilly had been the first wolf to climb, followed by Kate and then Humphrey last. It took them only two or three minutes for them to find branches that were good enough to sleep on for the night. The branches they chose were large, thick branches, good for holding wolves on them for an entire night. Each wolf was laying on a different branch, obviously, all of their bellies. The wolves would not need to worry about plummeting to their deaths from this tree even if they tossed and turned in their sleep. The branches were too wide for that to happen. The wolves knew that this was an old tree, judging by the size of it.

Kate, with her head on her paws, was on a branch not too far from where Humphrey was. She was only inches above her mate. Lilly was just inches above Kate, only she was already sleeping, with some moss wrapped around the wound where half her tail had been torn off by a railroad spike.

"Humphrey," Kate was whispering, so Lilly would not be woke up. "How will it take for us to reach the field, now?  
"Realistically," said Humphrey, "we should be there before sunset tomorrow if we move at the pace we did today. But now, just get some rest, dear. You need it more than me. I'll stay awake for a little longer, then I'll fall asleep. I'm not very tired, to be honest." Humphrey was telling the truth. He was not tired, but he was worried about what the future would bring. What would they find in the grassy field? Would it be them finding the five wolves, whom they were praying to still be alive, there? Or would find them Princess, Garth and his children dead? Or would they still believe alive, but have left a message telling them that they had moved somewhere else? What if they were zombies there? And if the five wolves they were longing to see were dead, what would become of Kate, Lilly and himself? Would they die too? Humphrey's mind was plagued by these thoughts when he fell asleep several minutes after Kate did.

* * *

That half a day went by quickly, but it was a frightening journey for the wolves. Every step of the journey across the Eastern and Western Territories was thrown encounters with the zombie wolves at them. They were stalked to the point of being exhausted by fear-fueled running. Running for nothing, considering how slow their pursuers were. But at least they had managed to reach the grassy field in the Western Territory, the one they had been looking for up to now. There was still two or three hours until sunset, so they would have plenty of time to search the field for their family members.

At this moment, Lilly was now leading the group, not Kate, to the center of the field, to the area where she and Garth slept together at night before the outbreak. If Princess, Garth and the pups were still in the field, that was where they would be. Lilly was positive. The area was safe unless something wandered into the area, because it offered great camouflage for anyone sleeping in the area. Lilly froze in her tracks when the lake came into view. There was a worrying sight before her, and Kate and Humphrey saw it when they caught up with her. They froze too. It was blood. A large amount of it trailing from the tall grass that Lilly had once called home. The three began to worry, their hearts beating rapidly. For the sake of his mate and sister-in-law, Humphrey said that he would be the one who went to check it out. He was not expecting anything good, nor were the females, but they were trying to remain optimistic. For all they knew, it would be the blood of something that had gone through there before the five wolves they were searching for had even arrive here. And there was nothing good in the clearing.

Kate and Lilly hear Humphrey screaming, and then there was a gagging sound as if Humphrey was vomiting. And he was. That was the first thing they noticed when they ran into the clearing. But they quickly forgot about that when they turned their heads away from Humphrey. It was the sisters' turn to scream. And it was loud, almost bloodcurdling as they were being torn limb-from-limb. There was three dead wolves and one dying wolf in the clearing. The dead wolves were Garth, Runt and Stinky. Lilly's body was shaking as she looked at the headless corpse of her mate, and Kate as she looked at the chewed up and mutilated corpses of her sons. Runt's throat was slashed and face chewed apart, as well as other spots on his body. Stinky's body was in the worst condition, ate to the bones in so many places, and his belly was hollowed of his intestines. There was blood everywhere.

"CLADUETTE!" screamed Kate when she saw her daughter, with a bite to the throat and scratches from a wolf all over her body. She was bleeding for all of her injuries. It had been almost a half a day since this happened to her. Claudette could still speak for the wound to her throat was nothing in comparison to the one Princess had received. But her body was numb and aching due to the virus in her system.

"Mother..." Claudette whispered. "...you found us..."

"What happened?!" Kate asked urgently.

"Princess...she got bit by a zombie wolf and turned," said Claudette, weakly. "She did that to Garth and my brothers, and me." She paused. "Mother...I'm dying..."

"No...no..."

"End it...I don't..." Claudette and the wolves standing over her body began weeping. "...Please mother...I don't want to turn into one of them...end it..."

"I love you Claudette," her mother said, "but I cannot do that you. I already had to end your grandmother's suffering...for the same reason. It was bad enough killing my own mother. I can't kill my own daughter! Isn't there something we can do to cure her of the virus?"

"Mother...there's nothing that can be done...this virus has no...no cu-cure..." Claudette gasped for a breath that never came, and then her life expired. Her large head dropped into a pool of her own blood, splashing it over her mother, aunt and father.

"No...Claudette," Kate wept. "How could this have happened to us. What did we do to deserve this? What did they do deserve to die like this? We're good wolves! This shouldn't be happening to US!" Kate screamed. None of them had the mental stability to comfort each other, for they had all suffered great losses here. Not only did Lilly lose her mate when she was pregnant, but she also lost her sister-in-law Princess, and her niece and nephews. Kate and Humphrey lost their entire little of pups, their daughter-in-law, and their brother-in-law Garth, Lilly's mate. What else was there left for them to lose other than their own lives? _NOTHING!_ thought Lilly. _We should just all let ourselves die...there is no reason for us to go on live in this world. This is hell!_

Reluctantly, Humphrey crushed the skull of his deceased pups so they would not reanimate as zombies. That was not a fate that they deserved. Garth had no head, so there was no chance he would turn. But Princess...she did this to them, so that meant she had already reanimated and could still be shambling these fields, but they did not care about any danger now. They were mourning their losses, taking these deaths terribly. Humphrey joined his mate and sister-in-law, screaming and crying for their deceased relatives. They were too upset by these deaths to even bring themselves to howl for them. At least their suffering was over, and none of them would reanimate like poor Princess. But that did not make things any better!

Lilly, through all her grief, heard something in the grass. "Kate, Humphrey..." she wiped away tears from her eyes and mucus from her nose, but it was back quickly so she did not bother again. "...I heard something...in the grass..." There was a familiar moaning sound and the sound of shambling foot prints. "...we have to get out of here!"

"I won't leave me babies to be eaten!" Kate screamed.

"Do you want to be eaten instead?!" Lilly gasped. "They can't suffer anymore! We can! Come on, Kate! RUN!"

The three wolves turned to run, but they would not have a chance no. There were zombies there, but it was so many more than they could have expected it to be. They had been expecting only a zombified Princess to be coming toward there, but it was a horde of zombies coming through the grass from all directions. There was only a small opening at the north side of the horde, furthest from where the three wolves stood. There were many recognizable wolves among the horde. They saw many of their friends from the park, but the most recognizable ones were Candy and Sweets, Reba and Princess. They noticed Scar seconds later. That meant they were most likely the only survivors of all the Jasper wolves, but with this situation presenting itself, that could change to no survivors very quickly...

"KATE!" screamed Lilly and then things went dark for her...


	24. An Omega's Sacrifice

**Author's note:** Be ready for a "holy crap" moment or two in this story. I was thinking that while I wrote this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

**An Omega's Sacrifice**

Princess was a zombie. So was Scar. And Garth, Claudette, Runt and Stinky were all the first victims of a reanimated Princess. The only survivors in all of Jasper, Kate, Lilly and Humphrey, were learning this all now as they were being surrounded by a horde of zombie wolves that were once their friends, even family, before their deaths and reanimations. The horde was enclosing around the three wolves now, and they only had once small opening that at the side of the horde furthest from them.

Lilly had just screamed Kate's name as she and Humphrey were running for the closing opening, hoping to escape without being wounded and before it closed. Lilly had blacked out when she screamed her sister's name, an action that provoked Kate to run for her life, and she was running life a wolf possessed, to get out of this circle of death.

It was now or never. Kate and Humphrey dashed through the opening between the zombies, as it was still growing smaller, to catch up with Lilly who was already several feet away, and still running. The zombies bite and clawed at them, including Lilly, but it seemed, remarkably, that no one had was injured by them Although broken by what they had just learned about the fates of their remaining family−Princess, Garth, Claudette, Runt and Stinky−the three were relieved to still be alive. They were home free. They could escape the pursuing horde of zombies who were friends, family, and even enemies, in life. They were all enemies now, Princess, Reba, Candy, Sweets, Scar, the rogues, even the wolves who never met them in life! There were wolves from the Northern and Southern Packs among the horde that was disappearing from view through the grass. They were weeping for their deceased relatives all the way.

Kate, Lilly and Humphrey ran north from the field until they found a place that was safe from the zombies. They were a good distance from the field; it would take forever for the horde to catch up, if it did, before they moved on. Presently, there were no zombies in the area they were resting. They were near the cave of Kate and Humphrey, so they went into the cave and collapsed on each on in a heap of mourning wolves, facing ever which-way. Kate, gasping for breath, not even care that her head was resting on Lilly's butt, or that Humphrey was laying on top of her, sideways, with his tail on Lilly's head somehow. Humphrey moved to get more comfortable; Lilly did not care that she ended up above Humphrey with her head on his belly, in the direction that another wolf would normally be embarrassed to find her head unwillingly. But they were so saddened by the deaths of Princess, Garth and the pups that they hardly noticed anything, and what they did notice, the wolves did not care about. Lilly's head fell sideways; she had a clear view of Humphrey's hind legs. She laid there almost motionlessly until she made out some odd shapes on close to the area between his legs. She did not think anything of it until a minute late. Lilly gasped, and jumped up, throwing Kate toward the wall. Kate hit in softly. She would be fine, but if what Lilly saw was what she thought it was, then Humphrey would not be.

It shocked Kate and Humphrey when Lilly poked her nose close to between his legs−so close that he could feel her breaths−to get a closer view of the strange shapes she had seen out of the corner of her eye. Kate's eyes grew wide because she did not see what Lilly did, nor did Humphrey. Kate's jaw hit the floor because she was thinking Lilly was looking at something else. Lilly knew what it was on his leg. "Humphrey!" she screamed unexpectedly and began backing away on all fours until she was behind Kate. "Your leg!" Lilly pointed, from the distance she was at, with her right paw, in terror, to what she had got an up close look at. It was three claw marks on his leg, near the area Lilly had put her head so suddenly. They were claw marks inflicted by a wolf!

The moon changed immediately, for the worse, when the other two wolves saw what Lilly had. All three of their hearts' sank, and the females began weeping. They had just learned that Princess, Garth and the pups were dead, and now this! Humphrey had been scratched by one of the zombies without even noticing it! There was another scratch across his shoulder that was also bleeding. The females knew it had to have been the zombies, because neither of them had scratched him on their way to the cave, or when they had tumbled into it. There was no blood on their claws or anywhere on them, for that matter. They all thought back to when they had ran through the closing gap of zombie wolves, and recalled how the zombies there had clawed and bit at them. At the time, they had not thought anything about it, they were in such a dead run, but Humphrey now recalled being scratched there by one that he had knocked down to the ground when it had got in his way. He also recalled receiving a scratch to his shoulder, which they noticed now. The girls had heard Humphrey screaming, but they never could have expected that this would have been why, because they both had been screaming too, only in terror and not in pain.

Kate collapsed next to Lilly. "No...no...no..." she was sputtering out the word "no" repeatedly. It was all she could think to say. Kate sputtered the word "no" ten more times and then she screamed it at the top of her lungs. Kate then went into a fit of rage, cursing and condemning the zombies who were once good friends, or family, to her. Kate did not give a damn who they were. One of them did this to him and now he would be dead in at least a day! She did not know which one, or ones, but she would murder whoever or whomever it was! she thought harshly. Why was every bad thing that could happen to her happening?! First her both Winston and Tony, her fathers, died to this virus, then her mother, Princess, Garth, her pups, and now Humphrey would be next! Who would die after him? Her? Lilly? Who?

"No...no..not Humphrey...not Humphrey..."

"I'm sorry...Kate," Lilly cried. "I'm so sor..." Lilly's voice cracked before she could finish sympathizing with her sister, but Kate knew what she meant to so. To make it more complete, she wrapped her armors around Kate in a hugging fashion. Although her mate was already dead, Lilly knew what her sister was going through. Kate's mate would be dead by tomorrow at this time.

Humphrey, unlike the two females with him, did not know how to react to being infected, with no hope of being saved from reanimating. Kate had lost everyone who was close to her except for Lilly and himself. She had no one else. And now, he would die like Eve and so many others before her, and there was nothing that would change that. They all knew that, as much as they wanted to deny the truth. To not believe the truth. Kate was hoping that it was just a really bad nightmare that she would wake up from eventually, but it wasn't.

"We..." he began slowly. "...you two need to get back to the gas station. That is the only place that will be safe for the both of you. But I won't make it the entire journey, so I am not going with..."

Kate cut him off. She knew where this was going. "No!" she screamed at her mate. "I will _never_ leave you alone to die, Humphrey. Either you spend the last day of life you have left with Lilly and I by traveling with as far as you will go before you start reanimating, or we will just stay here in our cave until you reanimate! But no matter what we again on, I AM NOT LEAVING YOU!" she roared. Kate was not acting like her normal self. She was more like Eve than her normal self.

Humphrey sighed. What Kate was saying was right. He couldn't leave them alone when he was still breathing. Lilly needed more than one wolf to protect her, being pregnant. Due to her pregnancy, Lilly was having to be careful and not do anything that was not risky for Kate and Humphrey, but was risking for her, like fighting, for example. "I'll stay with you both," he said, "but the moment I start turning, one of you end it." he began to weep. "I don't...don't want to turn into one of those things like almost everyone else..."

Kate and Lilly, in sadness, agreed with Humphrey's proposal, as bad as things seemed for the three of them now. The trio of wolves left again, but this time, the females felt as if there was a raincloud hanging over their heads, and this feeling would not go away. It would be worse after Humphrey's death. Kate just knew it. Humphrey was walking behind them, slower than they were moving, but he could sense how depressed Kate and Lilly were about what happened to him. He wanted to make them feel better, but he knew that, in the end, it would be a futile attempt to try and cheer them up. He was Kate's first mate, and he knew he would be her only mate if she survived this to the end, and he was slowly dying. There was nothing that could be done to cheer her up. Not even mating with her, but if they did mate, it would surely infect her with the same virus that would be his downfall. Humphrey would not let Kate get infected, and so mating was out of the question, for sure. They could not dare think about anything that would result in contact with his bodily fluids−blood, sweat, tears, saliva, none of his bodily fluids were safe to be swapped with Kate. He quickly forget about such an idea.

Ten minutes later, Kate told Humphrey that she loved him with all her heart, and that she would miss him even more when he was gone. She was in tears as she told her mate this. Lilly was licking Kate's tears off, as they took their brief break.

"I love you, too, Kate," Humphrey said sadly. "I'll miss you too." Lilly then repeated Kate's words. Humphrey gave Lilly the same response he gave Kate. The girls nuzzled Humphrey under his chin, but that was about as far as their contact with him would go. They knew that contact with bodily fluids−even something, like tears, that would seem harmless could infect them with the zombie virus. They could not afford to risk infection when they wanted to stay alive for everyone who would not be able to live. Lilly was the only hope of repopulating Jasper when this was all over, because Kate knew that she would not marry again. Kate would not even consider a one night stand with a male she could be howling with, drunk from eating those fermented berries which she was addicted to thanks to Humphrey. Fermented berries were one of Kate's favorite foods, next to caribou, if not her favorite. Kate got crazy when she was drunk from eating too many, but she would not go as far to mate with another wolf again, out of respect for Humphrey, the one and only wolf whom she had ever loved during her puppyhood and adolescence.

If they survived this to the very end, what would the world be like for Kate without a mate to sleep with at night? To comfort her during those thunderstorms that she hated so much because they scared her and kept her awake at night. What would the world be like without all the wolves they had grown up with, like Garth? What would it be like without children to watch grow up as she grew old? Her first little, the only one she would ever have now, was dead before their time. What would the world be like for Kate and Lilly? If humans did find out about what was going on in Jasper and Banff, and they were able to eliminate the threat once and for all, what would become of Kate and Lilly? Would they be left to live in Jasper, just the two of them and Lilly's puppies, however many she had when that time came.

_If it comes for me_, thought Lilly. _Who says I'll live to give birth?_

Kate realized how selfish she sounded saying that she would not marry or get pregnant again if she could not be with Humphrey. If she wanted to continue her family after this was all over, Kate would have no choice but to marry and get pregnant again with another male. But there would not−_never_−be a male who she would love more than Humphrey. She would be dead if it was not for Humphrey's actions during the caribou stampede that almost cost Kate her life. He had covered her body from the caribou after being rendered unconscious by a caribou that ran into her, taking all the blows from the feet of the caribou for her, knowing that it could have killed him. She would mate again, yes, for the fate of her pack, her bloodline, but no male could replace Humphrey. Lilly would find another mate, if only just to raise her pups properly when or if they were born, but she would probably never get pregnant again to honor Garth. No male would replace Garth for Lilly, like no male could replace Humphrey for Kate. But if they did get pregnant with other males, they were sure that Humphrey and Garth would understand that it was for continuing their family, and that they would not find a wolf to fill the gap in their hearts that would be them.

Honestly, Kate and Lilly did not see themselves living good lives in the future, at least if they stayed in Jasper. If would be safe if the humans destroyed all the zombies, but they were too many memories they had here in Jasper. It was the memories of all their friends and family who died here that would make it impossible for them to live here. All of the wolves from Banff were dead, so maybe they could go back there and live safer lives while this was going on, and better lives because they had hardly any memories in Banff. And since all the rogues were dead, they would not have any enemies to worry about anymore. The expected hellish lives if they stayed in Jasper after the outbreak was over, and they were living hellish live now, and things only got worse with each day that went by. It was like a never-ending nightmare that they could not wake up from.

Kate was intending to go in to kiss Humphrey, on the cheek, not the lips because they would be swapping saliva and that was dangerous with Humphrey being infected with the virus that caused living creatures to reanimate as zombies. Kate was thinking about how it could be the last time she ever kissed Humphrey as she brought her lips close to her mate's cheek. But she only kissed air because Humphrey was not laying next to her anymore but standing a foot away, looking in the other direction with a look of terror on his face. "RUN!" he screamed when he turned around suddenly. Not very far away was an incoming horde of zombies, shambling in their direction!

Humphrey looked into the eyes of the females. He only had one thing on his mind in this moment. It was not his survival, but their survival. Just their survival. Humphrey would feel like he lived a full life if these two escaped this danger now. He could only hope that they would not encounter any more threats in the future if he was not there to protect them. This could be the last time they saw each other, but, in Humphrey's mind, it would be worth it if they lived to see another day, to not die at all! Kate and Lilly had to escape to reproduce so their bloodlines did not die out. Humphrey came to a final decision. They did not know it, but they would be the only ones to leave this place alive. Humphrey would not let the horde get Kate and Lilly. "I want the both of you to run," he said quietly. "Run for your lives! I will hold them off long enough for the two of you to get away." He kissed Kate on her cheek, and then Lilly's. They were mournful kisses. The females began to cry, and so did Humphrey. "I love you both." He paused. "This is goodbye..."

"No!" the sisters cried. "Come with us!"

"I'm going to die in a day anyway," said Humphrey, "and remember what I said to you not too long ago: I won't turn into them. I meant that, even if that means I must die before my last day on Earth is up. NOW GO!" he shouted. Humphrey would not allow them a chance to have any more physical contact with him. He ran in the direction of the incoming horde without any hesitation at all. This would not be a decision that he regretted.

"HUMPHREY! Come back!" Kate screamed. She and Lilly were holding in each with terror. But it was too late to try and convince Humphrey to change his mind and come back. Humphrey smiled at the females as the horde surrounded him so slowly. Their females hearts were beating rapidly. Kate and Lilly saw him, literally, torn limb-from-limb by the zombies. The last thing they saw of Humphrey was a gory mess amidst all the zombie wolves, before they did as he had instructed and ran for their lives.

But they did not run for their lives before Kate screamed this at the horde: "FUCK YOU ZOMBIES!"

* * *

**Author's note:** Yes. I killed off Humphrey. I'm probably as shocked as anyone will be who reads this chapter. But it is a _**drama**_/horror story for a reason.


	25. Sisterly Bonding

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

**Sisterly Bonding**

Humphrey was dead. There was no way that Kate could deny it. Kate knew it. Lilly knew it. Both of the females were crying for the wolf who gave his life for them as they headed back toward the Eastern Territory of Jasper. The tears the sisters cried were not just tears of sadness but also tears of anger, anguish...they were feeling about every dark emotion that wolves could feel. The worst thing they were feeling was hate towards those damned zombies, and yet about half of the zombies in Jasper had once been their friends and family before their deaths and reanimations. It was painfully ironic that the two females were condemning those who were once closest to them.

Kate and Lilly were at the peak of the highest hill in Jasper, with probably no more than an hour of this day left for them to travel. And they did not know where they were traveling. Without a set destination, the sisters would not survive very long. They had to get some sort of destination in mind soon if they wanted to make it back to the gas station. But there was one that they were sure about: they would _not_ cross the train tracks again. There was not much of Lilly's tail left for her to lose to another railroad spike, and Kate did not want either of them to go through that. The sisters hardly were aware of the fact that it was not actually a day since Humphrey sacrificed himself for them, but at least a week. Kate could not bring herself to leave this place, the final resting place of her mate. She was far too depressed to travel. But it was remarkable that they had survived over a week in the most infested part of the valley. Kate kept thinking about how Humphrey and everyone she knew except for Lilly was dead because of the zombies. It was, again, painfully ironic that the wolves she had once loved, when they were living not undead, were now contributing to the deaths of even more of her friends and family. Among the zombies that made up the horde that Humphrey was killed were Princess, Candy and Sweets, Scar, Reba and at least fifty-some other wolves.

Kate and Lilly found a safe place to sleep, just before the sun set on this terrible day. Once again, it was in a massive oak tree. They did not know if it was the same one they had slept in when Humphrey was alive, but they did not care, either, honestly. A tree was a tree, and the only thing that did matter was if its branches were large enough to keep them from falling to their deaths, whether by breaking their bodies on the ground below or by the teeth and claws of the zombies. So paranoid the sisters were about losing the other that they chose to sleep on the same branch in an awkward position. It made them believe that being paranoid made wolves did strange things. Kate was flat on her back, something that was odd for a wolf, or any kind of dog, with Lilly laying on top of her, curled up how a dog should sleep on Kate's belly. There was a noticeable size different between Kate and Lilly, and this showed it. Kate was the larger of the sisters, and the oldest, too. Normally sleeping on one's back on a tree branch would be extremely uncomfortable, to say the least, but such was not the case this time. These branches were over grown by ridiculous amounts of mosses and flowers that made this tree branch feel more like those beds they had slept on in the upstairs of the gas station.

The sisters rested up for a day, and then they agreed that it would be wise if they left Jasper Park all together, and not just the Western Territory. Their only viable hope for survival, for their future, and for a place to sleep without fearing for their lives, was to return to the gas station and hold up there for as long as this went on. As they climbed down the tree together, slowly and carefully so neither of them lost their grip and fell, Kate, beneath Lilly, was beginning to have feelings that she was partially responsible for the deaths of Humphrey and their mother, Eve, and even for Lilly losing half of her tail because she had said it would be safe to use the train tracks as a bridge, but Lilly kept telling otherwise as they climbed down the tree. On the ground, Kate argued that if she had not said anything about the locked room at the end of the upstairs corridor, then their mother never would have been curious to explore it, and she would possibly still be alive. And if Kate had not convinced them all to leave the gas station, now in vain, to rescue Princess, Garth and her children, then Humphrey wouldn't have been wounded when they were surrounded by that horde.

"Mother didn't go upstairs because you said something about that room," said Lilly, angrily, bearing her teeth. Kate paid attention because of her sister's strange actions. "She'd wanted to pass the time and to find us a better, safer, place to sleep than on the bottom floor of the gas station. And Humphrey, he only wanted to know about the fates of his children, brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Would you have been able to just stay hold up in that building for an endless period of time without knowing whether Princess, Garth and your children were dead or not? I don't think so! You, mother and I would have all done the same thing! You know that very well, Kate. No one is to blame for their deaths. Not themselves. Not me. And, damn it, Kate, neither are you! Get that through your skull NOW!" Lilly was shouting most of this.

That was all Kate needed to get herself motivated to move, and to stop blaming other wolves for the deaths of her family and friends. They knew that only one thing was responsible for their deaths: the zombie wolves. No one who was a living creature was to blame for their deaths. They never would be. Just that loud, screaming tone of Lilly's voice was thought provoking. Until this instance, Kate had always thought that Lilly was a soft-spoken wolf, even though she had spoke like this when they were arguing about traveling when her body was aching, so for Lilly to be shouting, screaming and having anger in her voice like this, especially to her own sister, even if the intention as to motivate her not to be rude, was one of the most shocking things that had ever happened. And for Lilly to say "damn it" again was even more shocking. Lilly never cursed until all these went done, not even using certain words, that did not need to be spoken, when Garth mated with her; Lilly just was not a cursing type of wolf normally. But in a time like this, when they were the only known surviving members of not just their family but of their entire pack, wolves did things that were not fitting to their personalities. For Lilly to be cursing mildly was odd for her, and for Kate to have screamed "Fuck you" at the zombies was odd her Kate, who did curse, but never to that level of vulgarity, and never around other wolves until now. Up to that point, never had Kate ever used a profanity worse than "smartass," which was what she had once called Humphrey for usual innuendos around her. Of course, Kate eventually had complied to Humphrey's request to "get a taste of him," as he had put it then, without Winston or Eve knowing. (Kate missed all those times when they could act like that without any danger of rogues−and zombies, now. She wished that they could go back so such peaceful times after the death of King.)

The sisters came near the border of The Western and Eastern Territories shortly after Lilly's harsh scolding, albeit motivating, speech to her sister. They agreed that it was a good time to take a short break from their seemingly endless walking. There were no zombies in the area. They were extremely positive. There was no scent of rotting flesh. No sounds of incoherent but loud moaning. No sounds of shambling paws of wolves. But if that did happen, Kate and Lilly would hear it. They had an ear for the noises that the zombies made after everything that had been three in the past almost two weeks since the outbreak. (They could not believe, yet, that they had survived an entire week in The Western Territory when there were so many wolves with more skill than then, like Scar, who had not been able longer.) Besides needing to rest her blistering feet that were almost bleeding from all this walk, there was something that Kate wanted to talk to Lilly about. Something important.

"I am sorry for what I said back there, in the tree, about being to blame for what happened to Humphrey and mother," apologized Kate. "I realize, now, that you are right. I never should have said the things I did. Lilly, you had ever right to scream at me. I deserved it for being such a fool."

Lilly accepted her sister's apology, but there was one thing Lilly did not agree with. "You are no fool, Kate," she said. "You've been through hell, we both have, and you're just not nothing straight."

"Are you mad at...mad at me, Lilly?" Kate asked in a voice that sounded like a little pup had asked this question.

"No, Kate. I'm not," said Lilly. "Why would I be? I'd just wanted to get you thinking straight, and I've done that. I'll never be mad at you, even when I am screaming at you. How could I get mad at you? You're my sister, and you're all I have left. If I drove you away, or you died, now, I would have no reason to go on living, except if you consider my pups. But I would not be the same without you, or anyone, with me. No one needs to be alone now. I feel bad for all those wolves who might have been alone for so long, only to be wounded by the zombies and to die alone. So many wolves we knew could have died alone out there. I can't begin to imagine how it would feel to die alone. If I die, I would want you to be at my deathbed, Kate." Lilly moved closer to her older sister. She put one of her front legs, her left one, over the shoulders of Kate, and licked her cheek. That was the proper way that wolves kissed, licking with their tongue, rather than literal kissing, but obviously Lilly would not lick her sister across the lips on normal occasions. But now, if it made Kate feel better after losing Humphrey, then Lilly would do it, whether it was worth it in the end or not. And so she did. Lilly cautiously licked Kate's muzzle once, and that was it. She did not want to go too far with it. But it did, at least it seemed, to accomplish what Lilly wanted it to.

"I love you, sister," whispered Lilly. Then she looked down at Kate's feet and gasped. They were much more blistered than Lilly had thought. Some of the blisters were so bad that they were starting to bleed because of all the walk her and Kate had done. It was hard to believe that Lilly's feet were not this blistered. Kate's feet were beyond just being blistered, now that Lilly took a closer look at them. They were bleeding badly from some of the blisters, as Lilly had already noted, but there were also some cuts on her feet. All this walk had not done justice to Kate's feet, especially her much more sensitive paw pads. Those were more damaged than the rest of her feet.

"You must rest those feet for a couple hours, and the rest of the night, since sunset is not far away," Lilly instructed Kate, thinking it was odd that she was giving her older sister orders for once, instead of the other way around. Obviously it would not go to her head, more so because of the situation, but mainly because Lilly was not the kind of wolf who let things go to her head. Lilly went away from not even a minute, and then she came back with a muzzle full of leaves called aloe, introduced to the sisters by their late mother Eve at a young age, that were known for their healing properties. Lilly began chewing the leaves up to crush them into a paste, and then she spit the mint green paste onto Kate's feet. Lilly spread the paste all over Kate's damaged feet gently with her front right paw until Kate's feet were coated with the paste. There was not a spot of the underside of her feet showing through when Lilly was done with this application. The aloe paste was already beginning to make her blistered feet feel better, but that was just a cooling effect that was caused by the leaves when they were crushed−or in this case, chewed−into a paste. Crushing the leaves was what activated the aloes' healing properties. Kate and Lilly never would have thought that being forced to learn everything their mother knew about medicine would be useful.

"By morning," said Lilly, "your feet will be as good as new. If not, you'll be able to walk, but I will have to put more the paste on your feet. You remember those bags we got from the gas station before we left, the ones we are using to carry those steaks in? Well, we don't have much meat left in them, so you can take all of the meat from your bag and put in mine, and then we'll put as much aloe as we can fit in yours to use each night. We will restock it every chance we get to, whether it is necessary or not."

"Can we at least go into that nearby cave?" Kate asked in a low, nervous voice. Kate was nervous because Lilly, the younger sister, was starting to take charge of her. Kate was the Alpha female of the pack, and the older sister, so it was odd to be given orders by her sister, not that she was discriminating against Lilly for being an Omega and not an Alpha. Kate would never discriminate anyone. "I would feel better if we were not out in the open like this; I feel vulnerable. You can just chew up more of the allow."

"No, Kate," Lilly argued. "What would we do if we are found by the zombies, and we are sleeping at the back of that cave? If it is a horde like the one we encountered last week, how on Earth would we get out of the cave? We wouldn't. We'd be torn to shreds if we go anywhere we can be cornered or not have a perfectly view of the area."

"What about the trees? There's a good one for sleeping in right there," suggested Kate.

"If you're up to climbing, I'll bring an extra mouth full of the aloe with me to reapply it when we find good branches. Just let me get the meat moved over to my bag." When they were down with transferring the other half of the meat to Lilly's bag, Lilly loaded Kate's up with as many aloe leaves as it could hold, and then she took up a mouth full. Mouth closed, Lilly climbed the tree, constantly looking down at Kate to see if she was doing fine. In the end, they had no trouble reaching the hollowed out area on the side of tree, with mosses and plants growing in it, they could see from their view point on the trunk. Satisfied with this shelf on the side of the tree, Lilly wiped off the aloe paste that had pieces of bark off the tree in, chewed up the leaves in her mouth, and then repeated the process of apply the paste to Kate's feet. When she was done, Lilly spit the extra paste off the side of the side of this ledge, and then she licked Kate across the cheek, gently, with her rough tongue. Lilly had the roughest tongue of any wolf to ever live in Jasper. When it came to healing or making someone feel, the rougher a wolf's tongue was, the better it could accomplish that task. Garth had once know what good Lilly's tongue could do if she used in the right places, and it had not been for healing, but pleasure.

_Now is not the time to think about licking that, of all things_, thought Lilly, blushing. She didn't need to be thinking around things that would cause her to go into heat around her sister.

"We can just talk the day away," said Lilly, when Kate asked them what they would do until dark out, the time they would be able to fall asleep.

"What is there to talk about?"

"All the good things we went through before the outbreak," said Lilly.

The sisters went into a conversation about when they were just newborns, naked of fur, in the cave of Winston and Eve. Candy and Sweets, Reba and Janice, Hutch and Candu had all been born days before and after Kate and Lilly. Kate was not even ten minutes older than Lilly. Hutch, Candu and Reba were younger than Kate but older than Lilly, while the rest were all younger than both Kate and Lilly. Garth was older than all of the wolves of his generation, except Kate. Garth, before his death anyway, was only minutes younger than Kate. Humphrey was only two minutes older than Lilly.

Hutch was one of the few wolves who had been born to parents from Banff, before King became the Alpha male of that park. The only others known to be orphans from Banff, for a number of reasons, Candy and Sweets, and Reba and Janice. The flood of Banff was a well-known incident, especially to Hutch, Candy and Sweets. They all lost their mothers and fathers to that flood. It was also well-known to the wolves of Jasper, thanks to Eve's actions only shortly before ninety-five percent of the Eastern and Western Packs died, that Reba and Janice were also born in Banff. Supposedly, the parents of Reba and Janice had been the lead conspirators in a plot to murder the Alpha male of Banff before King, because he was a cruel wolf like King. The separate families of Reba and Janice−they were not sisters, but only best friends−were executed in front of their pups, all of whom were executed afterwards except for Reba and Janice because they had been considered runts by the killers, thinking that it was a pointless waste of their energy to execute runts. All of these orphaned wolf pups were rescued by a hunting pack from Jasper that had lost track of a caribou, and they were all adopted out to different families, except for Reba and Janice because of their vegetarian beliefs.

Candu was born in Jasper who lived out their natural lives, passing away from old age only a month before the outbreak. He was a Beta wolf, but all of his siblings were deemed Omegas. One of them was among the wolves who died at The Howling Rock to the zombies, and was first found by Reba and Janice.

"I miss everyone," whispered Kate, as the sisters reminisced about the pasts of all their late friends, and relatives. Lilly had rubbed the aloe paste off of Kate's feet when she had began complaining about a pain that the aloe did nothing to relieve. All Lilly could think to do was put her rough tongue to some good use for once. Never had she used it for medical purposes before, but now was a good time to start, or at least Lilly thought it was. Lilly began, as gently as possible, licking the blistered and bleeding paw pads of Kate's feel. In theory, it could make the injuries better, but that was something not even Eve knew the answer to. Eve never had to resort to using her tongue for healing before her death. Specifically, Eve had told her about a rumor that the rough tongue of a wolf could wear down, even heal, blisters, and Lilly had a tongue rough like no other wolf. If licking the blisters on Kate's feet would make them go away, then it would be worth this almost disgusting task, in Lilly's mind. (But then again, Lilly has done dirtier things to Garth with her tongue than this, so she did not quite understand why she found this more disgusting.) Within about half an hour, this treatment, if such an act could be called a treatment, seemed to be working, although ever so slowly.

Kate told her sister that she could stop licking, because it was not getting anything done fast. So she did, and she sighed as she lifted her head up, and spit out the tiny parts of blisters that had come off on her tongue. Lilly sighed. "Yes, Kate. I miss them all too. We always will miss them, if we many it out of this valley. So many innocent wolves who didn't deserve to die so violently..." Lilly started crying. "...Reba, Janice, Hutch, Salty, Shakey, Mooch, Candu, Claws, Scar, our parents, Tony, Garth, your children, Humphrey and Princess..." She went on to list every wolf whom they knew to be deceased, including Candy and Sweets, too.

"So much unnecessary death!" wept Kate. "If there was one thing−just one−that I could wish for, Lilly, it would be to have this all end. No, to have this to _never_ have even began in the first place. For everyone who has lost their lives to come back to life, and not as zombies," she added. "I'd wish for every wolf to be alive again, even the rogues from Banff." Lilly blinked, and gasped. "Lilly, if the rogues were still dead from this virus, this would all happen again.

Lilly's legs gave out right under her, and she fell to her belly, which did feel good against the mosses growing on this large notch out of the tree. Lilly looked up at Kate, who was still setting on her haunches, legs stretched out in front of her.

"Kate, I would gladly wish for nothing more than what you just said," Lilly whispered. "But the world never will be the same again for us, whether every zombie wolf in Jasper and Banff dies or not." She paused, then looked up at Kate with "sad puppy eyes" as she cried. "Kate...we won't be around for the end of this outbreak, we will? Will me!" she cried. "Whether are both die, which I expect the most, and I hate to be pessimistic, but I am being honest, Kate, or if we are not in Jasper anyone, but somewhere else, whether it be Banff or the gas station, or...I don't know where."

"Do you really think that we won't survive this?" Kate gasped, and her jaw hit the floor. Then she uttered only four more words: "I don't wanna die..." Kate collapsed now, too, onto the mosses. She let her head fall down onto the back of who sister, who she turned her eyes to look at. Kate buried her muzzle into the back fur of her little sister, and she cried herself to sleep. Lilly just looked at her sister, and then away to watch the sunset from this notch in the tree before falling asleep. Sunsets were about the only beautiful think left in this world after everything they had been through in the past dozen days.

* * *

**Author's note:** This is not one of the chapters that I originally wrote, for the most part. This chapter, and the next two chapters were all originally one chapter, and I decided to split them apart, and make each individual (three) chapters longer. I wanted to have a more light hearted chapters after Humphrey's death, and to show more of a connection between the sisters. Originally, I had planned to call this chapter "Just Two Wolves" but I felt "Sisterly Bonding" would be a better title.

On a side note, I never thought I would have wrote a chapter with more than 4,000 words. This one has 4,120 words according to the word count on this website, not counting the page break above this author's note, and the note itself. Anyway, enough of my rambling. I should have the re-write finished tomorrow. I plan to write some of it out tonight so the writing of it can go much faster, and I'll write from the old version (while making it better) if I don't get the next last four chapters done. The epilogue will be an original chapter too. Originally, I planned to have a team of soldiers come into Jasper looking for survivors, but I felt that would be too predictable, and because I did not like the character names I had for them. Plus the ending I thought up is a lot better than the original.


	26. Wolves in the Tree

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

**Wolves in a Tree**

Lilly was sleeping peacefully behind her more on edge, yet still peacefully sleeping, sister, snoring quietly. Lilly had her head on Kate's butt, with her own facing in the direction of Kate's head. The left side of Lilly's body was pressing up against the right side of Kate's body with her half tail almost wrapping around her sister's head. Of course, just half of a wolf tail couldn't quite stretch that far. Shockingly, the sisters weren't even being plagued by nightmares for once. Lilly was dreaming about Garth, again, seeing herself howling with him at The Howling Rock during a Moonlight Howl. Lilly saw herself with a much more bloated belly, due to her pregnancy, than what she really had. Judging by the pleasured, yet quiet, moans Kate was making, she was not dreaming about anything that should discussed.

As she dreamed, Lily began to feel as if there was some sort of disturbance in the air, thirty or so feet down. Lilly was lightly kicking at the air behind her with her hind leg. Whatever the disturbance was, it was bothering Lilly like nothing else. So she woke up, but she had to shake her body to wake Kate up. She didn't want to make any noise to wake her up, not knowing what it could be down there.

"Kate!" hissed Lilly. "There's something down there. Come to the edge with me. We need to see if we can see what it is. I don't know what it could be, but I cannot bring myself to sleep so peacefully, like I had been, anymore. Stay low, Kate," she warned.

The sisters watched form this hollow area outside the tree. They were gripping the edge with their paws. Kate and Lilly saw something moving in the trees, but they could not see what it was, because it was too camouflaged by the foliage. Their hackles were raised. They froze with fear, worried that it was the zombies again. They were not so worried about moving when they did not pick up the tell-tale signs of the zombies−first, the stench of rotting flesh, then the sounds of moaning and shambling footsteps. The lack of all these sounds assured Kate and Lilly that it was not zombies, at least. But then why did its presence, whatever it was, disturb Lilly to the point of not being able to sleep?

"What is it?" asked Kate. No sooner that the wolf had asked Lilly this question, it came into view. It was a male human, probably a hunter, considering how he was dressed, and the fact that he was armed with a shotgun.

"Get back!" Lilly hissed. They slipped back until their butts hit the trunk of the tree. Kate and Lilly covered their ears when they heard the shotgun go after. But still, their ears were ringing as a result. They saw the edge of their resting spot on this tree explode before their eyes. The hunter was aiming his shotgun at the tree.

The sisters remained still and quiet for about a minute. "Move slowly to the edge," whispered Kate, "and then stand up slowly...one at a time..."

The sisters crawled to the edge of this cliff on the tree, slowly, not knowing what to expect from the hunter. He could blow their heads off in a second if he really wanted to, or he could just let them go free without threatening them if he knew what they were. Then again, the hunter had already fired a shot at them, but that could be considered a warning shot because Lilly had hissed at Kate, and it probably sounded like a snarl to him. Kate sat up first, willing to take a twelve gauge sell before Lilly. The man shockingly put his shotgun down along his side. For that reason, Kate whispered for Lilly to set up too, slowly, and she did. They could tell that this man was wondering how two wolves could have got so high up in this tree, and where they were, too. Kate's and Lilly's thoughts were confirmed when the hunter shouted "Hey! How did you two get up there?" at them with surprise. Then they heard him chastising himself for talking to wolves. He was saying something about how they would not have understand him, nor would they have answered him anyway. What the hunter did not realize was that Kate and Lilly could understand him, but they did not answer because he would only hear barking and other noises wolves made, and not words.

As the hunter was contemplating how these two could have got up there, Kate and Lilly noticed many things that the hunter seemed not to notice. First of all, the foliage was shaking again, more so than when the hunter had been walking through it. Then the now very familiar odor of rotting flesh was now assaulting the noses of Kate and Lilly. It was so painful that the sisters dropped to the ground and covered their sensitive noses with their paws. It did nothing to relieve this assault upon their noses. They could still smell that stench of rotting flesh, even with their noses plugged with the toes on their front paws. Next came that eerie moaning and the sound of shambling footsteps they associated with the zombies. It meant, as much as they did not want it to, that there were zombie wolves in the area. The only reason for that had to be that the zombies had heard the gunshot.

Kate knew there were more important things to worry about now than just protecting her nose from that stench. She knew that she had to warn the hunter about this danger somehow. But first, she told Lilly to get out of sight, and then Kate began shouting urgently for the hunter to run for his life. But all he heard from Kate was panicked parking and not her words. But no matter how she sounded to him, the hunter sensed that something was wrong. Why else would any kind of dog, domestic or wild, be barking for no reason? Dogs could sense things, including danger, that humans could not. But now, all of the smells and sounds that Kate and Lilly were already aware of hit the nose and ears of the hunter. Gagging loudly, the hunter made a vain attempt to block that rotting stench with a face bandana, before taking aim with his shotgun in the direction of the shaking foliage. Even though Kate was still frantically barking, the hunter walked cautiously out of the wolves' view, into the forest. Now Kate was screaming for him to get out of the forest, and he heard her howling as he looked around. He didn't see anything, but he could still smell and hear whatever it was. Kate went silent and she backed up to be with Lilly when they heard a gunshot, and then the screams of the hunter. The sisters would never see what happened to the human, but they could figure it out easy enough themselves given everything that had happened to them in the past twelve days. The hunter would not come out of the forest again, except for some of his blood flowing from the forest.

Kate and Lilly managed to fall back asleep again an hour later, but their pleasant dreams would not come back to them after what happened. The sisters would be plagued by nightmares for the rest of the night.

* * *

When the sisters woke up the next morning, there were no signs that any zombies had ever been there, except for the remains of the hunter in the forest, which they could smell. Of course, Kate and Lilly were not strangers to the smell of blood, being wolves, but this was different. First of all, it was not the blood of something that was killed for food, at least not to be eaten by something that would benefit from it, so Kate and Lilly felt bad for the hunter. He had not for no reason at all. The zombies would not benefit from consuming him. They were already dead! Dead things could not benefit from food. The sisters were trying to ignore the odor of the hunter's remains, and they considered themselves lucky that they were able to do so.

From here on out, the sisters' day would not get better. First, they ate their fill of the meat that Lilly was carrying in her satchel from the gas station. It was after that that they realized that, unfortunately, their supply of meat was beginning to run low. At the moment, they would only have enough for the rest of this day, and then they would be forced to climb down from the safety of this tree to hunt for their food. They feared that there would not be a lot of meat for them to hunt for, that the zombies stalking Jasper had ate most of the animals. But if they could just find even find a few rabbits, they would have their next meal.

This situation was making them wish that they had listened to Reba and Janice more than they had. Reba and Janice were always going on to anyone who might have listened to them about how to scavenge for berries and other pants, and about what was safe to eat, and what was not safe to eat. While it would require hardly any energy to harvest berries and such, Kate and Lilly would have to eat so much more of whatever they went with to get full and get energy from the food. And then there was the question of what would taste good, but then again, they could not afford to picky when it came to food. Food was a matter of life and death. They would just have to deal with the taste if they did not like it; they would get used to it eventually if they ate enough of whatever they did not like. The biggest problem when it came to eating fruits, vegetables and plants was that Kate and Lilly knew nothing about what was safe and what was not safe. The only such berries, safe berries, that Kate and Lilly knew of, for sure, were the fermented berries that Humphrey and Salty had shown Kate and Lilly around the time of Claudette's, Stinky's and Runt's first winter with their parents. Because of her mate and Salty, Kate was an addict of fermented berries; she ate them in bulk at every special occasion, and even for snacks throughout the day. Few wolves knew it, but Kate had a stock of fermented berries in her cave; they had picked them up and stored them in her satchel when they were there after Humphrey was injured by the zombies.

"What will we do, Kate?" asked Lilly.

"We don't really have much choice," said Kate. "Lilly, our supply of meat is down to a day, at the most. We have to go the ground and look for whatever we can find−rabbits, berries, anything that we can fit in our satchels to carry back up to this spot."

"Will we be safe? You remember what happened to the hunter."

"We won't go into the forest," Kate said. "We don't know what could be in there. Yes, we do not smell the stench of the zombies' flesh, but our noses aren't perfect. At least if we are out in the open, one of us will be able to see any zombies that are incoming."

Lilly stuttered. "But will we be safe? I don't want to be at risk of being in danger. I don't want to die, Kate. We've made it this long. We can't die now."

Kate ran her nose through Lilly's cheek fur to comfort her. "We'll be alright, Lilly," she said. She changed the subject. "Wasn't there a berry bush with fermented berries growing on it not far from here?"

"I believe so," said Lilly. "It may have been just behind the tree. But is it a good idea to be eating fermented berries now? I don't think it is a time for us to get drunk."

"We'll be staying in this tree for a while, but I did not tell you this before, Lilly," said Kate. "I was planning for us to leave today, so we need to pack all the food we can in these bags."

"But...but where can we go?"

"Back to the gas station across the river. That is our only choice for a safe place to go, Lilly."

Kate and Lilly safely made it to the bottom of the tree, and then they went to check out the bushes behind the tree. Lilly was right. There was a bush there with berries growing in it. Kate ate one of the berries, and she knew immediately these were fermented berries. They had a unique taste to them. Fermented berries had a strong, sour taste that was not mistakable. One knew when he or she was eating them, no questions asked. They had the strongest taste of any kind of berries. The sisters began filling up their satchels with the berries, even the one that had meat it. In their opinion, if the fermented berries were mixed with the taste of their meat from the freezer in the gas station, then that would make them taste so much better. They filled the satchels till they were almost overflowing, and then they intended to go back around the tree until they heard a moan.

"Oh, no..." whispered Lilly.

"Why now?" Kate whispered back.

"I think it is time we leave now," whispered Lilly. "We've got all of our things with us anyway...let's just run for it."

"Wait," Kate gasped when the zombie came just into view, but it did not yet see them. Kate knew who it was, and so did Lilly.

"Princess..." gasped Lilly. "It's Princess!" she said loudly, then covered her muzzle with her paws. The zombie Princess's head spun around to the direction of Kate and Lilly. She moaned and began shambling toward them, almost tripping over a tree root that was between Kate and Lilly and Princess. Although Lilly screamed for Kate to run, they did not have a chance. So shocked they were that they had frozen for a few seconds, and that mistake gave Princess all the time she needed to get up on them. Lilly blacked out, then there was screaming, the snapping of wolf jaws−Princess's−and a scuffle coming from behind the tree. Then the sound of wolves running away, one of them screaming in agonizing pain.


	27. The Worst Day of Kate's Life

**Author's note: **Prepare for a terrible ending to this chapter. That is about all I can say about it. I'm shocked that I even did what I did originally, but I didn't want to change the whole story of the last two chapters. One more after this, and then maybe an epilogue to wrap things up.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

**The Worst Day of Kate's Life**

Kate and Lilly found themselves a great distance from the tree that had been their safe haven, Lilly bleeding from a bite to her foot. The bite was from a zombie Princess who had found their camp. Kate was panicking about what to do. She knew there was only a couple minutes left to save Lilly, who was screaming for Kate to sever her foot. Kate still had the knife from the gas station she had used to end Eve's suffering. Kate had no idea why she had kept it really, but she assumed it was for this reason. If only Humphrey had been as lucky as Lilly and suffered a bite on one of his paws. Kate could have saved his life.

"DO IT!" screamed Lilly. Kate came forward. Lilly closed her eyes as Kate cut her foot off with the knife. She screamed the whole time, and then passed out. When Lilly woke up again, she was no longer bleeding from where her foot had been, and the stump was wrapped up with a piece of moss that was filled with aloe leaves. Kate was lucky to they had stopped in a place where aloe was growing in large amounts. She had kept some of the moss from the tree, without even thinking that they would actually need it. Kate had chewed up a large amount of the aloe and spit it into the moss that was not wrapped around Lilly's stump. It was the aloe that was reliving the pain and that had stopped the bleeding.

Lilly was in shock for several minutes, just staring at her severed foot that lay a foot away from her. When she snapped out of it, she asked Kate "I won't turn into one of them...will I?" in tears. "I don't want to end up like Princess..."

"You won't, Lilly," answered Kate, reassuringly. "I cut your foot off in time."

"How on Earth will we make it to the gas station now?" asked Lilly. "I only have three feet now."

"It will be hell for you at first, but we'll make it Lilly," said Kate. "I'll make sure you do. We'll just have to take the journey a little slower. Unfortunately, we won't be able to sleep in trees anymore. You won't be able to climb, but I know of several hills on the way that have isolated cliffs on them that it will be impossible for the zombies to reach. I used to explore Jasper when I had nothing else to do, and I found many hills like that. We can travel from each one, one day at a time until we reach the train tracks."

"What? You want me to cross the train tracks? I'm not doing that again. I already lost half my tail. It could be my head next time! And swimming? How can I swim across that river without only three feet?"

"I'll help you all the way, Lilly," said Kate. "That's what sisters are for. They help each other out, especially at the worst times. I won't lose you now. Like you said, we've been through too much to die now."

"You're right, Kate," Lilly sighed. "I can't let having one less foot slow me down any. It's not like I lost an entire leg. But I am scared that you did not get my foot off in time. I trust you, Kate, but you cut it off three minutes after I was bit. You could have been too late to save me. We'll know in about three quarters of a day if I'll turn or not when my body starts shutting down!" Kate started to cry, feeling like she failed Lilly now. "I'm sorry, Kate. I shouldn't have shouted. I'm just overreacting and paranoid. I'm sure I'll be fine...I'm sorry," she repeated and wiped away Kate's tears.

"We need to go before Princess catches up to us again," said Kate, suddenly calmer. "We seem to have underestimated how quickly they can catch up with us when they move so slowly."

Lilly had to be helped up off the ground by her older sister after a failed attempt to get up on her own. "Can you walk?" asked Kate.

"Yes. I just have trouble getting up." And then Lilly took off walking. Kate caught up with her, and advised Lilly not to run like that. That running could cause her foot to start bleeding again.

"Then I'll run on three legs when we have to," retorted Lilly. "Like I said, I'm not letting a missing foot slow me down any. I can walk as fast as I could before without that foot. It was killing me with those blisters anyway. I say good riddens to that foot!" Kate found these somewhat shocking, but she was happy, regardless of this dark statement, to see Lilly in good spirits about having one less foot to walk on. Kate never would have thought a wolf would not be angry about losing a foot. Kate assumed that Lilly was just happen that she was not infected with the virus because of that bite from Princess. Just happy that she would not die. After all of this, Kate and Lilly could say that they had Thanatophobia−a fear of dying−after all they had been through. More accurately, dying and then coming back to life, but still, they did not want to die for any reason but natural causes. But with a valley full of zombies, to die of natural causes did not seem possible, even plausible, at this point.

"Kate, I need to rest for a few minutes," whined Lilly an hour later. "My weak leg is getting tired from having it always lifted up in the air like this. How I wish I could walk on it, at least."

"Go ahead, Lilly," her sister said understandingly. "I'll stay by you in case we must leave suddenly. I'll carry you on my back for a while, if you want. I'm not a weak wolf, and you're not that heavy, either. I could carry you for a while. That way, you can rest, and we can keep moving."

"That is kind of you, but what will we do if you get exhausted from carrying me?" asked Lilly.

"That won't happen," she assured Lilly. "I can carry you from one of those hills I told you about to another before I tire out, and then we'll sleep on those isolated ledges, so I'll be ready to go again tomorrow. I can deal with that for a day or two. Just get on, and I don't care if you have to mount me in a certain position for me to carry you."

Lilly blushed lightly, unnoticed to Kate, and then she said, "Okay," and then climbed up onto Kate's back. It was a good thing that Kate was much larger than Lilly, or this would not have been easy. Thankfully, Lilly thought, she did not have to mount Kate. If anyone did see them, humans, birds, or anyone, like that, it would have been embarrassing. Jokingly, Lilly could imagine seeing the zombies stopping and just staring when the saw a wolf mounted over her sister in a strange position. On a more serious note, if Lilly had had to mount Kate, then there would have been the risk of her falling off and getting hurt, and hurt Kate by digging her claws into Kate's butt, out of instinct, trying not to fall. There was nothing good that would have come out of having to mount Kate to be carried, now that Lilly thought about all these things that could have gone wrong if she did. Lilly wondered if Kate was thinking the same things, and she was.

"See, Lilly?" Kate said without looking back, as she walked toward the first of the hills she was talking about, sometime later. "It is no problem for me to carry you on my back. I actually think that it makes are journey easy."

Lilly's heart sank. "Are you saying that I'm an invalid because of my injury?"

"No!" gasped Kate. "I would never say that about you! Oh, dear," said Kate, when she looked back and saw her sister's sad expression. Tears were wetting Kate's back. "What I meant was, we do not have to worry about each other getting lost, separated or in danger. We're always together."  
Lilly wiped her nose off, but Kate said it was fine if she blew her nose out with her back fur. But Lilly thought the idea of that was disgusting, and she didn't. But Kate kept on pressing her to do it until she gave in. Kate tried not to shutter, but it was for Lilly, so it did not bother her to know that she had mucus in her fur now. Lilly would have started whimpering from the discomfort that came from it just being there if she had not got rid of it now. As Kate had said to her sister once, she would do anything to Lilly to make her feel better. "I see, Kate," she said. "I'm sorry that I misunderstood." Lilly looked around from her spot on Kate's back. "Is that the hill you were talking about?"

"Yes," said Kate. "I can just see the ledge from here. We'll have to jump across a small gap between it and the hill to get there, but we can do it. It's more a pillar or a platform, large enough to hold us both, yes," Kate added when Lilly asked if it was safe. "It's several feel in every direction, and unless the zombies have learned how to lunge, they'll just fall to their deaths in the canyon below if they try to get across. A word of advice, Lilly. Hold on like your life depends on it when I jump."

"But it will!" whined Lilly as the sisters approached the gap between the hillside and the platform. Lilly held on tight to Kate's fur with her paws as Kate laid down to get ready for a lunge. Lilly screamed as they went through the air because she had looked down into the canyon when Kate lunged. Lilly was still screaming when they landed safely on the platform. When she regained her wits, Lilly had to explain to Kate that she had looked down at the worst time.

"Well, we're safe for tonight," said Kate. "Are you hungry, Lilly?"

"Maybe just some berries and a small piece of that stake," the white wolf said. "I think it's best if we ration what we have left of our meat until we get back to the gas station. We could run out very quickly if we hog out. We lost a lot of the meat when..." Lilly stopped there. She was going to say "when Humphrey died" but knew it was foolish to mention his death around Kate. "...when we were attacked by the zombies in the Western Territory."

Kate got out what Lilly wanted, and she ate it slowly. The fermented berries led to Lilly burping uncontrollably for a few minutes. Kate ate about the same amount of meat and berries as Lilly. They were both full after eating very little because they had ate the day before until their stomachs were overstuffed .

After they were done eating, Kate said, "I need to change the moss around your leg," and then began gently taking it off. She took a clean piece of moss and wiped off the leftover aloe, which, as expected, bloody. But the wound was no longer bleeding. Kate licked it with her rough tongue to make it feel better, and then she three all the old moss off the side of this rock platform. She took a clean piece of moss out of a third satchel they had for this purpose, chewed up some aloe, which she spit into the moss, and then wrapped it around Lilly's stump. She tied it on with some string Kate took from the gas station when they had they, Humphrey and Eve had looked for things that might prove useful. It was good they had, or Lilly's wounded leg would always be exposed. She bit the string off of the ball, and then put everything away.

"Good as new," said Kate, thinking about how ironic it was that she and Lilly had hated learning about the healing arts from their mother, but now it was helping keep her sister alive. "You'll be able to wear this one longer than the other since your injury is no longer bleeding."

"Thank you Kate," the white wolf whispered, then added, "Goodnight," before dozing off, curled up in a ball like she would normally sleep. Her missing foot was not a hindrance to her sleeping like she normally would. Kate on the other would not fall asleep until it was dark. She watched the sunset, which she thought were always so beautiful, with all the reds, purples, blacks and other colors that resulted from the sun going down.

Kate said, "I love you, Lilly," in a low voice before she curled up next to her little sister.

* * *

Kate and Lilly both woke up after the sun was in the sky, at about the same time. Lilly opened her eyes to see Kate stretching her body, butt stuck in the air, to get the numbness from sleeping still for once out of her body. Lilly decided they needed some coming relief, and said, "Hey, Kate..."

"Yes?"

"It's morning! I should be waking up to the sun rising, not a full moon! Do you want me to start howling now or tonight?" Lilly said this because Kate's butt was in the direction of her face. Kate was looking around her wide hips at Lilly when she starting laughing hysterically. That was just what Kate had needed to hear. It was suggestive, but any kind of humor would due. They needed to have at least one less serious conversation. All of their conversations up to now had been so serious, and they were tired of it. To have her butt called "a full moon" when it was broad daylight was so funny to Kate that she fell on her butt laughing. The pack of her head almost collided with Lilly's, but Lilly ran forward so that would not happen, and so Kate's head would not land on the stone. Lilly pushed Kate back up.

Kate looked at Lilly. "I'll admit, that was a good joke, Lilly. I needed some kind of humor to begin my day. Hopefully the rest of this day is like how it begins: lighthearted and nothing serious happening for once."

Lilly was clearly not infected with the virus after being bitten by Princess. It was well over half a day since then, and she would have been feeling numbness through her whole body by now, among other symptoms, if she was infected. Lilly was showing no such symptoms, and Kate thought that was a sign their day would be much better than the last twelve or thirteen. They had lost count of how many days this had been going on now.

"Are you up to traveling on my back for the rest of the day, Lilly, or do you want to walk for a while?" asked Kate.

"I'll walk for a while, until I my bad leg gets tired again," said Lilly. "I feel much better in comparison to last night, that is for sure."

The sisters jumped back onto the hill from their safe platform, one at a time, and then they reached each other to the top of the hill. Surprisingly, to both of the sisters, Lilly beat Kate. From the top of the hill, they could see their next destination clearly because the hill they were looking at had a platform much larger than the one they just came off of next to it. And it was not that far. They would probably reach it by mid day, at their slowest pace. If they went at a consistent speed normal for themselves, they would be there before noon.

"Let's go," said Lilly. "I may be able to walk all the way before you have to carry me again."

But Lilly proved herself wrong. Her bad leg started giving her fits as soon as they reached the bottom of the hill, giving Kate no choice but to carry Lilly on her back, not that she mined. Kate actually enjoyed carrying her little sister around on her back like she used to do with they were just puppies. Lilly was so much smaller than Kate that Winston and Eve had feared that Lilly was a Runt, but the opposite was true. Kate had a small case of gigantism, which caused animals to be much larger than normal. But it was only a slight case, and so Kate was not a massive wolf, but she was noticeably larger than every other wolf of her generation. Lilly was a normal-sized wolf, believe it or not.

As they traveled now with Lilly on Kate's broad back, her front and hind legs dangling comfortably off the sides−something that also helped Lilly keep herself from losing her balance or falling off of Kate, too−the sisters realized another advantage of Lilly riding on Kate's back. Lilly could see further ahead of Kate, and warn her of any dangers if she had to. But there was not a single sign of danger to come, as far as Lilly's eyes could see. Lilly told Kate this, and she picked up the pace, more determined to reach the next safe hill. Kate had been traveling slow not because of the additional weight of Lilly but because she was being cautious, up until Lilly had informed her that there was no danger on their path. No natural dangers, not that they would mind those−they could go around natural obstacles and dangers without any trouble−and no zombies, thankfully. Zombies, the wolves thought, were more dangerous than an earthquake.

"Kate...I need to..." Lilly began whimpering. Her bladder was bothering her so badly that she could not bear to speak. Kate stopped immediately, and they found a bush nearby for Lilly to do her business in. For Lilly's own safety, she would stand rest next to the bushing, albeit looking in the other direction to give Lilly at least some privacy. No wolf liked being watched while they did what Lilly was doing. Kate laughed quietly as she thought back to the time this had happened when Humphrey was with her, and he had to get out of that couple's camper to go. Kate had watched Humphrey, but he told her to turn around. Secretly, Kate had been wanting to watch him do his business, hoping to catch a glimpse of his..._okay, I was so immature then_, she thought, shaking her head. Kate could hear Lilly doing her business, but that did not really bother her.

Lilly had her back facing Kate as she did her business, but now she was looking at something moving through the other side of the bushes as she did it. It was moving slowly, and silently. But then the smell that hit Lilly's nose and a moan caused Lilly to freeze. The smell was rotting flesh. And Lilly knew that it was immediately, not just because of these smells and sounds but because a zombie was muzzle to muzzle with her suddenly.

There was a blood curdling scream and then a commotion from the bushes. "KATE!" It was Lilly. And when Kate came through the bushes, Lilly was fighting with a zombie Scar as best she could with only three legs. Kate gasped when she saw how dangerously close Lilly was to the edge. She did not care about Scar−he was already dead...rather undead. Lilly would be hurt the most if she fell, and what if Scar landed on top of her? Kate did not want to think about what would happen if a zombie landed on top of Lilly when she fell to her back. Before Kate even had a chance of moving to help Lilly, both Lilly and Scar went out of sight.

Next came a terrible scream that caused Kate's hackles to rise higher than they'd ever before, and more tussling, this time for the foliage below. The screaming was obviously Lilly's, and Kate was panicking. She could not see what was going on, or where Lilly and Scar were fighting because of the thick layer of foliage blocking the view. Kate wanted to help her sister, obviously, but how could see help Lilly when there was no way to see her?!

There was one last scream from Lilly followed by the sound of someone's skull being crushed by a large rock, and then only silence. Just an eerie silence that put Kate into a spell of terror.

"Lilly!" shouted Kate. No response came. "Lilly!" Still no answer. Kate tried two more times, and still, she got no answer. Kate began to weep. She knew what this meant, and yet she tried to deny it. "No...no...no...not my sister! Not Lilly! Not Lil..." Kate's voiced cracked before she could finish her sister's name, and she lost all feeling in her les. She collapsed down to her belly. On the ground, everything she and Lilly had gone through from their puppy days to now flashed before Kate's eyes. She remembered all the good and bad moments she and Lilly had together. With everything Lilly had survived the almost past two weeks with Kate, she could not believe that their time together could be over so suddenly. And Lilly was pregnant, too! That made Kate feel so much worse about it. Kate began screaming her sister's name and profanities directed towards the zombies. Never had Kate cursed so much in her life as she did in this moment of her life, one of the worst things to ever happen to her. She could not think whether losing Humphrey was worse than losing Lilly, or the other way around. She loved them both! It killed Kate on the inside to have lost them both, and now to be possible the only survivor of the Jasper wolf packs.

The sound of a crushing skull came to mind, then the thought became worse. Kate could not bear to imagine that it was Lilly's skull that crushed on a rock when she fell, and not Scar's. Kate just knew that a zombie Scar was making a meal out of Lilly's body at this moment, and Kate had not been able to do anything to stop it. But, worse yet, what if Lilly was bitten by Scar, even though she destroyed his skull, and she was laying down there wounded from the fall, too? But there was no sound coming from the ditch, so Kate had no idea. Not one!

Ten minutes later, Kate was still there, and now things could be looking up for her. There was a sign of hope in the ditch. Something was moving up the side of the ditch. Fast. It came into view. "Lilly!" Kate cried happily. But Lilly moved so fast out of that ditch that Kate did not have a chance to see any of her facial features or anything before Lilly turned her back on Kate for some reason. This action struck Kate as odd. She moved closer, but Lilly barked at her sister to not come any closer. Kate froze her tracks.

"Lilly?" whispered Kate. "What don't you turn around? Please turn around. I want to see your face." Kate was whimpering in a whiny voice as she choked her words out.

"You wouldn't want me to do such a thing," Lilly said in a hard whisper. Kate noticed that Lilly sounded as if she was in some sort of pain. Kate's heart beat sped up when she saw that Lilly was bleeding. This provoked Kate to beg even more for her sister to turn around. "Alright, but I warned you, Kate."

Lilly turned around, revealing a horrifying sight to Kate that made her wish Lilly had not turned around. Kate screamed. Lilly just blinked once, with the only eye she had left. Half of Lilly's face was torn down to the skin underneath her fur and hide. There were claw marks raking across her shoulder, and her face, too. A miniscule bite was taken out of Lilly's neck.

"Lilly..." gasped Kate, and then she screamed her name. Kate's voice quickly went from a scream to a voice impaired by crying. "Tell me that this is not real! Please, please tell me that this is not real, Lilly! That this is just some nightmare that I'm about to wake up from! Please, Lilly. This isn't real, is it?!"

"I hate to break this kind of news to you, sister, but it is real. About as real as it can get," Lilly said darkly. "Scar did this to me when he landed on top of me after we fell into that ditch. These injuries are all from him. He torn half my face off and my eyeball out when he sank his teeth into my face, but I broken his skull open. I killed him at the cost of my life," she added. "I hate to have to put you thing through this now, but you must go on without me Kate. You know damn well what will happen to me in about a day. My injuries are a_ death sentence_. You know that by now! You can't severe a limb to save me now!"

"Then will...will stay here in this hidden spot for the next day," Kate said weakly. "I won't let you die alive, Lilly. And I won't let you turn! I promise! It already happened to so many wolves close to us. I won't let you become one of them!"


	28. The Turning

**Chapter Twenty-Seven**

**The Turning**

Kate held up her end of her proposal. She stayed with Lilly for the rest of the day after Lilly's brutal injuries, and the rest of the next day until the expected began. Kate had been speaking with a ground ridden, paralyzed Lilly, who was just starting to lose all control of her body, and have seizures. Lilly vomited up blood and let out a weak scream. The seizures stopped just as quickly as they had begun, and then Lilly's body stopped moving. Kate sensed what happened: Lilly's heart stopped. Kate told Lilly that she loved her, and then Lilly expired. It all happened so quickly.

Kate refused to leave the final resting place of her sister. She could not even bring herself to flatten Lilly's head out like a pancake with the rock next to her, as she had promised. Lilly was dead, but Kate felt that it would be wrong to desecrate her sister's body, even if it was for a good reason. Kate sat there, in shock, with her legs sprawled out in front her, as it began. Lilly's began was shaking again; this went on for about a minute or two before it was all over. Lilly's eyes opened up, glowing a dull yellow that seemed to glow. No white left in her pupils. A moan escaped Lilly's mouth as she sat up, and seemed to make eye contact with Kate. Lilly seemed to be smiling at Kate. Maybe that was just what Kate thought she was seeing, and not reality. Common sense would tell someone that someone who was dead could not control his or her face muscles to smile.

Before Kate could reacting, she found herself pinned to the ground by her now zombie sister, who was trying to tear out her throat, snapping at it with her jaws. Lilly seemed relentless in her attempts to take out her own sister, not even knowing what she was trying to do. Lilly was on top of Kate in a position that Kate could not move because of. Thankfully, Lilly's three limbs that still had paws were digging into the soil next to Kate, and not into her body. But that hardly made things better. Nothing could change the fact that her own sister was trying to kill her now.

"No! Lilly!" screamed Kate. "I'm your sister! All that you have left! Stop! You can't...can't do this to me! I'm your sister! I LOVE YOU!" she screamed again.

A now reanimated Lilly stopped suddenly, and unexpectedly. Lilly cast a blank expression down at her sister, as if she understood what Kate was saying. Lilly's mouth was still, it seemed, stuck in that smile that she thought she had seen before Lilly had tackled her. Lilly seemed to think for a few seconds, and then she backed off of Kate, even offered a paw to help her big sister up, all while trying not to scratch Kate. Both wolves, the zombie and the living one, stared deep into each other's eyes. They still felt a connection between each other, it seemed, even though Lilly was now a zombie and not living. Lilly looked so different with her grayed fur and mane as a result of the infection destroying the cells of her body in the past twenty-four hours, but yet Kate still knew that this was her sister. She would never not be able to tell if someone was Lilly or not. They had known each other for too long; that could just be why Lilly had spared Kate's life after what she said.

Lilly cocked her head, but still she could not blink her eyes. All of the nerves that controlled such functions of her body were dead. She could only move her limbs, albeit at a shambling pace, and her head, but she could not blink or feel any pain. The nerves in her body were about as dead as she was. Kate was speaking to her. "Do it, Lilly," said Kate, biting at her own wrist with her jaws, but a zombie Lilly only stared at Kate with a blank expression. She seemed to be afraid about what Kate was suggesting now. Kate looked deep into her sister's yellowed eyes, and said, "You know what I am saying, Lilly. Bite me. Right on the neck so I cannot have a chance of being saved. Just get it over with. I want to be like you, Lilly. You shouldn't be a lone like this." Lilly shambled reluctantly up to Kate, but she cast another look at her sister when she was up on her again. Kate nodded resolutely, and then closed her eyes tightly. Lilly put her undead jaws up to Kate's throat, then hesitated for a minute before going through with it. Lilly gently sank her teeth into Kate's neck, so she would not kill her sister, taking out the smallest chunk of flesh possible. She did not want Kate to bleed out or suffer. Lilly did not swallow the meat she took from Kate's neck; rather, she spit it out, as if in disgust, and then kicked it down into the ditch where she was wounded by Scar the previous day. She wanted no part in eating the flesh of her own sister. Any other zombie wolf would have ate it no questions asked, but this was her sister, and she was remembering bits and pieces about Kate now.

Lilly looked at Kate, again, as if she was confused about why Kate let her do this to her. "If you can't beat them, Lilly," said Kate, "you join them..."

Eight hours, a third of a day, since her infection at the jaws of Lilly, her own sister, Kate was beginning to feel weaker. Lilly, now a zombie, after being wounded by a zombie Scar in the ditch next to this place, had bitten Kate gently on the neck at her own sister's request. Kate was barely able to walk now without tiring quickly. Kate could feel some of her less vital organs shutting down already. Her fur and eyes had already lost their lost, and her dull, but not yet grayed like Lilly's were. But her eyes were the dull yellow, the dull yellow that was present in Lilly's eyes. Kate looked like death warmed over already, and she still had another sixteen hours until reanimation.

A zombie Lily was resting on her belly right next to Kate, as they had done so many nights in the bed rooms of the gas station before Eve's death, and even before this outbreak began, gently licking Kate's cheek with her still rough, but dull pink, tongue. Her infection did not change the texture of her tongue, just the color. As Kate's body shut down, Lilly wanted to do all that she could do to keep calmer and feel better. With the limited mental capacity of a zombie, this was all Lilly could think to do to make her sister feel better. Not many thoughts were going on in Lilly's dormant brain. Lilly was trying to think about how she spared Kate, and why, but she failed because of her now weak brain. Maybe she had spared Kate because of their connection they had before Lilly's reanimation. Then again, it could be cause of Kate's words−"No! Lilly! I'm your sister! All that you have left! Stop! You can't...can't do this to me! I'm your sister! I LOVE YOU!"−had somehow rekindled all of Lilly's once lost memories of Kate in her dormant brain. Lilly had even hesitated when Kate wanted her to bite her. Kate knew that she and Lilly could have traveled together to the gas station and lived out the outbreak together, Kate still alive and Lilly the only zombie, because Lilly never would harm Kate after what she said, without her sister's consent anyway. Maybe those words had even rekindled some of Lilly's physical memories, because she was walking slowly rather than in an even slower shamble like other zombies. Never had Kate seen a zombie like this in the past two weeks until now. She did not know how to explain it.

Although her words sounded harsh and slurred like those of a wolf who had far too many fermented berries to eat, and were usually brief, Lilly was, remarkably, able to speak. But so far, there was only one phrase that Lilly had been able to speak. She was still trying to get better at speaking again. That one phrase she had uttered was "I...lo-love...yo-you..Ka-Kate..."; Lilly had spoke in a slow voice, too. She could not speak very clearly or quickly, but Kate was able to understand her without any trouble. That was the last time Lilly had spoke, but not for a lack of trying, that is. Kate did not hold that against Lilly. Being able to say those four wolves−"I love you, Kate"−as good as she had was more than enough for Kate.

Kate sighed, blinked and then cast a glance at Lilly. Lilly never slept, being a zombie. Kate was learning so much about the zombies being close to Lilly. She had already learned that zombie wolves required nothing that living wolves did−sleep, rest, food, healing and so on−but Kate still did, and Lilly was having to follow Kate's instructions to feed her with the leftover meat and fermented berries from the satchel that Kate was still wearing. Lilly had to tear it off of her sister, because Kate had not thought to take it off, and now she was too weak to do it herself. Ironically, a zombie was the only thing keeping Kate alive, in several ways. Kate was being fed by a zombie, not eaten by one, and the stench of Lilly's body starting to rot masked Kate's still "fresh meat" scent from any other zombies. Lilly was why no zombies had yet come through here. The zombies had unlimited endurance and stamina, but very little agility. The only way to "kill" them was to destroy their brain, and they could not move beyond a shamble, but they were next to impossible to kill. The Jasper wolves had learned how to kill the zombies until it happened by accident when they had pulled a zombie Hutch off Salty, and he was thrown into a rock, that destroyed his brain, and he ceased to attack anyone.

No zombie had logical thought, at least not until Kate got through to Lilly with her desperate words that had saved her from being ate alive by her own sister. Lilly was acting more like a living wolf than a zombie, in Kate's eyes. She was walking, not shambling; speaking in fragments, not moaning incoherently like a drunk wolf who had too many fermented berries for his or her own good. Lilly even had the heart to spare her family members, of which Kate was the only living one left. But Lilly was not able to run or lunge, or at least not yet, Kate thought. Kate would not be surprised if Lilly started running after all she had witnessed.

One infected by what the two sisters called "the virus of living death," or the "zombie virus," there was no way to save a wolf from reanimating if the injuries were not on a limb, which would be amputated, such as in the case of Lilly's left hind paw, if done early enough. But injuries suffered like those on Lilly, Eve, Claws, Salty and Hutch, to name a few, that were on the throat, face or shoulder, places that could not be amputated without being fatal to the victim. That was why Kate had instructed Lilly to bite her throat so Kate would not have the temptation within five minutes of her wound, the limit before a wolf could not be saved from infection, to amputate her infected limb. Kate wanted to be a zombie like Lilly, so Lilly would not live such a terrible life alone, if they had gone to the gas station rather than doing this. Within the hour of her being bitten by her sister, Kate began to feel pain and the wound her neck had a brown-purple discoloration. The wound had clotted immediate, it was so small, so Kate did not bleed very much. By Kate's fifth hour of infection, she had a fever of 99-103 degrees F, chills, slight dementia, vomiting and acute pain in her joints.

By the eight hour of infection, Kate was experiencing numbing of her extremities and the small, clotted bite on her neck. She could no longer walk, her limbs were so numb, without feeling a hellish pain in her limbs and feet, so Kate could do nothing other than just lay there with her limbs stick out to the sides of her bodies. She wanted just to cut them off, it was so painful. Kate would rather bleed out than suffer from this pain that made her regret forcing Lilly to bite her throat. It was not worth the pain she was experiencing, and it got worse with every hour that went by. In addition to this, the other painful symptoms Kate was going through included an increased fever of 103-106 degrees F, an increased level of dementia, and now a loss of muscular coordination. Three hours later, Lilly watched her sister suffer as her lower body went into a state of paralysis. Kate was numb overall, and her heart rate was starting to slow down.

Within sixteen hours of her initial, Kate was in a coma. As a zombie, Lilly did not know a whole lot, but she knew enough to know what was happening to her older sister. She was able to remember this all because it was what she had gone through thirty-two hours earlier, and it was one of the few memories still present in Lilly's dormant brain. It was difficult for the sympathetic zombie to watch her sister dying, but it was unfortunately what Kate wanted to happen to her. The end result anyway; not the pain that resulted from the infection. But she stuck, as much as it hurt Lilly to watch Kate dying, living out her last few hours of life on Earth. Lilly would be there, still, at the twentieth hour of Kate's infection, which was basically the last hour of Kate's life. Kate was completely still and just as silent. She was no long breathing or blinking; her eyes were still wide open, but Lilly closed them gently with her front right paw. Lilly could sense that Kate's heard had stopped, and any activity in her sister's brain was gone. These factors meant that Kate was official dead, and Lilly sensed it.

Two things happened at hour twenty-three of Kate's infection. First, Kate's body convulsed as Lilly's had, and then she reanimated. Kate was a zombie, and there was nothing that could change it now, as much as Lilly wanted to stop herself from biting Kate now...but it was all over...

* * *

**Author's note:** This is not it. I have an epilogue to write yet. I know, readers will be wondering "How?" but you'll see how in an hour or two.


	29. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Kate awoke screaming at the top of her lungs. Humphrey and her children, Claudette, Stinky and Runt had been sleeping peacefully, like Kate, until this point. Now, they were all around Kate quickly, every one of them asking her what was wrong.

"Oh..." gasped Kate. "It was just a nightmare!"

"What happened?" asked Claudette, the eldest pup and only daughter of Kate and Humphrey.

"You'll be shocked," said Kate, and then she told them everything that had just happened.

"You had a dream about zombies in Jasper?!" the group gasped together.

"You do not need to worry about such a thing ever happen anywhere, not here or in Banff," said her mate, Humphrey. "Zombies are not real, dear," he added, rubbing his wet nose through her hackles. This had some of a calming effect on Kate.

"I think we should all go to The Moonlight Howl instead of sleeping," said Stinky, the middle child, an Alpha. "It may get mother's mind off of her nightmare."

* * *

Kate, Humphrey and their children arrived at The Howling Rock just as Candy and Sweet were, with their mates Shakey−mate of Sweets−and Mooch−mate of Candy−were arriving. They were behind them a good distance, but they could hear what the she-wolves were saying. The wolves behind them did not know it until they heard this conversation, but Candy just got done riding her mate in their cave, while Sweets and Salty had come here to wait for them.

"Silly Omegas!" laughed Candy. "All they want us for is sex!" Then she jokingly added, "But we're too good them, right Sweets?" even though she had just gave Mooch what he wanted about seven minutes ago.

_Well, I am pretty horny right about now..._thought Sweets, with a look of being in heat on her face as she smiled at Candy. Candy was obviously satisfied, but Sweets went back to Salty, and she led him into the bushes to get what she wanted from him. Candy and Mooch, and the wolves behind them, ignored the cries of pleasure coming from the bushes, and just went on to the top of The Howling Rock while Sweet used Salty to take care of being in heat.

Kate was not showing it, but she was nervous about being here, where her nightmare had begun, even though this was real life. She also noted how Candy was pregnant already, but Sweets was just accomplishing that, unlike in her nightmare. Candy and Sweets had _both_ been pregnant in her dream, and about to give birth, not recently pregnant. That gave Kate hope that everything would be different when they reached the top of The Howling Rock. That Claws would not see the guards chasing rogues into the box canyon to what would be their demise. That would not happen, however, because there were not any guards here. There had not been any since the death of King and Queen because there was no reason to. The rogues would never return to Jasper without their chieftains whom had done so much for them before their deaths. Also, Kate was not aware of the fact that Claws was not here to see it. Like so many other females, they were busy taking care of their heat with their mates, probably in her cave, because it was mating season in Jasper. Claws, Candy, Sweets and Janice were only few of the females who were in heat.

Claudette was also in heat, and she went off to find Fleet, her mate, formerly from the Northern Pack, to take care of it. Even Kate was in heat. The last time she mated with Humphrey was three years ago. Wolves often had more than one litter, and so for Kate to have only got pregnant once in three years was odd. The same could be said about Lilly and Garth, they had not yet mated, and Lilly's heat was killing her. She wanted to mate with Garth, even if that meant riding him view of everyone! Lilly had the worst heat because Garth was worried about hurting Lilly because of Eve's threat towards him: "If you do anything to hurt my daughter, Lilly, I will sterilize you and it will be painful." So maybe if Lilly had complete control, and Eve knew about it, then maybe he would not have that happen if Lilly was hurt.

As all their friends, those who were not mating at the moment, were howling with their mates, or those whom they were in love with if they were not married yet, Kate was trying to ignore being in heat. But she was afraid that she would do something to herself or Humphrey in view of the other wolves that would be an embarrassing thing to do, being the Alpha female and the Alpha male. Mating season would be no excuse just to start loving her mate in plain view. Kate and Lilly were both extremely tempted to do something, their heat was so bad. They had not mated in three years, or never in the case of Lilly. At least howling with Garth was keeping Lilly distracted from it, but Lilly did not know the feelings of mating like Kate did, so it was harder for her to ignore this feel. Howling with Humphrey, her mate, only made her heat stronger.

Now, Kate was whisper in Humphrey's ear, hopefully in a voice so low that only he would hear it. She was talking to Humphrey about being in heat for the first time in three years, and that he needed to do something about it for her. Her words after this were: "There's a good drop off with some bushes in it that can give us some privacy..." That was the last words from her, because she had said things that got Humphrey in heat. He had not been until now.

There was so much howling of couples going out at this level, and all the way down the mountain, that the wolves did not hear Humphrey and Kate or Claudette and Fleet mating out of view of their friends and family. There was a gasp from around the bend of the highest point of the mountain as Fleet got done with Claudette. They were quiet about it, but several minutes later, there was a loud scream of "Oh, Humphrey!" that overshadowed the howling, and every wolf on the mountain stopped howling. The heads of the wolves at the top all spun in the direction of the sound to see Kate's head over the edge of a low cliff, her eyes half climbed, with a smile on her face. All in pleasure, because of Humphrey, who could be seen shaking with pleasure behind Kate, filling her up as he grew still. Kate and Humphrey were feeling too good to movie. Kate got what she wanted more than anything: to completely forget about that nightmare of everyone in the valley dying. And to get her state of heat relieved, too. Kate and Humphrey were both breathing heavily, and she felt so warm thanks to Humphrey. She could only imagine what their children would say when she gave birth her first little in three months next spring.

* * *

Claudette, who was laying on top of Fleet, gasped when she heard her mother screaming her father's name. It made her blush, because it sounded like her father had made her mother feel better than she made had made Fleet feel. They looked at each other with shock. Never had they heard someone screaming in pleasure like that before, at The Howling Rock. "That...that was Kate?" stuttered Fleet.

"Yes, it was my mother," moaned Claudette, still feeling pleasure from what she had just got done with. "I guess I'll have more brothers and sisters. Wait until I tell Stinky and Runt! They'll be shocked to hear that when mother learns she is pregnant, and the same news from me. Winston, Eve and Tony will be shocked to hear that they'll probably be around to be great grandparents."

"Yes, they all will be surprised," whispered Fleet. Because of when she had fallen on him, Fleet's front paws were stuck against his much larger and heavier mate's breast that. Obviously, she was did not care, but she was not reacting to his paws being there. For Fleet, on the other handle, his heavier mate was crushing his arms. It made Fleet wish that he had mated properly with Claudette, by mounting her, rather than letting her have complete control. But it had felt so good that he did not last long with her riding him. Although both Claudette and Fleet were smiling, Fleet said, "Could you move so I can free my arms?" Claudette complied, and lifted herself up, setting on him in the position that she had rode him, long enough for him to free his front legs. She immediately fell back down onto her mate, and he gasped with the weight of her landing him again.

Claudette and Fleet locked each other's eyes. It was her first time doing this, and she was excited for the spring to come along, when she would have her first littler. She did not know the feeling of being a mother. Judging by Kate's scream of "Oh, Humphrey!", she would have more than just her own little to look forward to next spring. And then there was Lilly and Garth, and her own siblings. There would be a lot of puppies born next spring. Princess was already pregnant with the pups of her little brother, Runt, and Stinky had found a mate, a she-wolf from the Southern Pack, called Mica, named for the stone because of her eye color, but she did not know yet if Stinky and Mica had mated yet.

Claudette had forgotten the feeling of her first time mating with a wolf, her first true love, Fleet, whose father, Nars, was not particularly fond of her mother, Kate, because Nars had lost to Kate as a puppy in The Great Wolf Games, which had been a tie between these two wolves who were now mates, as puppies. And to add to his dislike of the Central Pack's Alpha family, Claudette had defeated Nars when he had to serve as a replace for Mica, who had broken her foot during the qualifying rounds of the games, due to a water slick on the obstacle course.

What Claudette was now thinking about was not that she had just done it with Fleet, but..."I'm going to be a mother!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, unknowingly right in the ear of her mate, whom was still in her because they felt too good to move from this position, despite Fleet feeling crushed under his heavy, but not overweight, mate. Fleet was a skinny wolf like Humphrey who weighed three quarters what Claudette weighted. Claudette got her weight and the size of her head and hips, in comparison to the curves of her body, from her grandmother Eve. She was almost a spitting image of Eve, more than Kate and Humphrey. Her brothers looked more like Humphrey than anyone, but there were some features of Winston in them, like their manes and eye colors.

Claudette's tail was swaying around with excitement over the chance of being pregnant. She had tried once before with Fleet, but it did not result in a pregnancy. That was after she had defeated Nars in her first Great Wolf Games as an adolescent wolf. They were older now than she was then, so Claudette and Fleet were both sure that she would get pregnant this time. They were at the end of their adolescent years as wolves. So close that they'd might as well called adults now. So if Claudette did not get pregnant this mating season, they would try again next year. They would be full-blown adult wolves then.

Claudette kissed her mate right on the lips for giving her another chance at getting pregnant, even though their first had not worked around as they'd hoped. She ran her tongue over Fleet's lips and then get off him. Fleet stood up. Claudette had decided to get off her Fleet at the right time, because they could now hear footsteps outside the box canyon at the top of the mountain. A few wolves walked into the box canyon. It was the couples of Princess and Runt and Stinky and Runt. Princess was already pregnant, so she and Runt did not have such looks on their face, but Stinky and Mica did.

Stinky and Claudette asked the same question at once: "I take I know this means for our family?"

"Yes," said Stinky. "Mica could be pregnant."

"And yes," said Fleet. "Claudette could be, as well."

"And so will be your mother, Kate," Princess interrupted. "Did you hear her scream Humphrey's name?"

"We heard, for sure," said Claudette, still drunk with pleasure like the other wolves here had mated on this night. "At least there'll be a boom of wolf pups these spring. It'll get our mind even more off that blood Battle with the Rogues. It is good to see our mother back to her old self after her injuries King gave her. Maybe a new little of pups will make her forget about it."

"Yes," said Princess, "and maybe I'll forgot about my terrible up bring in Banff. The future is looking brighter," she added. "Now let's go howl the night away before the full moon leaves for another month! We can celebrate the new life that will come next spring!"

**The End**

* * *

**Author's note: **I'm going to give a bit of trivia about these quotes of Candy and Sweets.

" Silly Omegas! All they want us for is sex!"

_Well, I am pretty horny right about now..._

They are not ones that I came up with (I probably wouldn't have if it was not for the picture I found). I found them in an image fanpop of Candy and Sweets edited in Paint it had these phrases in a speech bubble for Candy and a thought bubble for Sweets. I don't know why, but I felt like it would fit the story. Maybe just to have a light hearted ending to the story and to imply how Omegas like Salty and Mooch who were always shunned by females can get now that they have mates. Even what is implied between Kate and Humphrey was based on a photoshopped image of Humphrey mating with Kate that I found on the same website. Anyway, I guess that's it for this story. I feel like this is the best thing I have written.

And so this whole chapter wasn't just about the mating season in Jasper, I decided to add a short conversation their futures when the pregnant females, Princess, Claudette, Kate, soon to be Lilly, Claws, Janice, Candy, Sweets and the character Mica I came up with originally for the role of Lilly's daughter in a story I was going to write of my own version of A&O 3, until I saw it and did not really like it enough to continue, so I just made her Stinky's mate instead for this story so the character didn't to waste. I just never thought of it until I wrote the epilogue, so I won't go back and have her mentioned more.

On a side note, if you want to watch music videos I have made, look up the account LadyBlueAOFW on YouTube. Note that I've only used songs by Hollywood Undead so far, except for one song that their old lead singer released after leaving the band. Let me know what you think on YouTube if you have an account, or through private messages. I'd prefer reviews of my views not be done in the reviews for this story, for obvious reasons. Refer to which video(s) you review if you PM and not comment on YouTube, but that is what I would prefer. I'm probably going to take a break from stories after this one, but I will work on something I get a chance. I don't know right now. I've kind of worn myself out re-writing what I would, again, call the best thing I've ever written.

Well I'm done with my rambling. This author's note is going to end up longer than the actual epilogue if I don't stop! In Microsoft world, this author's note takes up more than a page on a 6x9 in document, and about a whole page on a 8.5x11 in document. Hah.


End file.
